It is sometimes imagined that Jesus was nothing but sweetness and light. But this is very wide of the mark.
As N.T. Wright (Jesus and the Victory of God, p183f) points out the Synoptic Gospels record a ‘pretty devastating catalogue of threats and warnings’.
That catalogue, as compiled by Wright, looks something like this:
Leave the dead to bury the dead (Mt. 8:22/Lk. 9:60);
…Do not put the new wine into old wineskins (Mt.
This is an updated version of a piece I first published on 6th December 2019.
In 2013, Andrew Lincoln published Born of a Virgin? Reconceiving Jesus in the Bible, Tradition, and Theology, presents a case for denying the virgin birth (more properly, the virginal conception) of Jesus.
As Jason Engwar says,
…‘Lincoln is a supernaturalist who accepts traditional Christian concepts like the deity of Jesus and his resurrection, but rejects other traditional positions, such as Biblical inerrancy and the historicity of the virgin birth.
In Born of a Virgin?, Andrew Lincoln expresses the view that Luke, in the early part of his account of the circumstances of Jesus’ birth, acknowledges the tradition that Jesus was conceived without the biological participation of a man.
But thereafter, according to Lincoln, all the signs are that Luke and his sources regarded Jesus’ conception and birth as being through entirely normal means.
God honours his word. As John Stott has written:
…‘Behind every word is the person who speaks it, and the authority he possesses or lacks. God’s Word has power for the sole reason that it is God who speaks it. His Word is creative (“for he spoke and it was done,” Ps. 33:9), productive (“my word … shall not return to me empty but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,” Isa. 55:11), and redemptive (“it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe,” 1 Cor.
Some extracts from Chapter 1 of Expository Preaching: Principles and Practice, by Haddon Robinson (1st ed., 1980). (The headings are my own)
Is preaching past its sell-by date?
‘The word is out in some circles that preaching should be abandoned. The moving finger has passed it by and now points to other methods and ministries that are more “effective” and in tune with the times.’
Preaching takes place in a context of communication over-load
‘Preaching takes place in an overcommunicated society.…
John 1:51 – “I tell all of you the solemn truth—you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
The allusion is to the experience of Jacob (later re-named Israel), Gen 28:17. While on his way to see Laban, he had a dream in which he say angels ascending and descending between heaven and earth. He concluded that ‘the Lord is in this place’, and named it ‘Bethel’, meaning ‘the house of God’.…
John 3:5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”
1. Some think that the expression refers to water baptism and spiritual regeneration by the Spirit
Such interpreters might represent baptism (either John’s baptism or Christian baptism) as a means of regeneration, and the Spirit as the primary cause of regeneration. Note that John’s baptism with water and Jesus’ baptism with the Spirit are connected in Jn 1:33, and Christian baptism with water is connected with the reception of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:38.…
Following a rapid survey of the history of preaching, Michael Quicke (The Art and Craft of Biblical Preaching, ch. 14) raises some questions for today’s preachers.
1. What short-term and long-term effects are we aiming for?
…‘Some preaching has immediate impact. Chrysostom confronted lifestyle issues of his urban congregation and critiqued aspects of the Byzantine Empire; Luther addressed Germans on every issue of moral, political, and social importance. Long-term effects of preaching are often dramatic.
How may the written Word of God become a living word for hearers today? This is the sort of question raised by the ‘new hermeneutic’, and also, in the context of preaching, by the ‘new homiletic’.
We do not need to accept (or even understand!) all of the philosophical underpinnings of the new homiletic. But we can agree that the preacher must have a deep understanding both of the biblical text and his modern hearers (this is simply to agree with John Stott that the preacher must engage in ‘double listening’).…
Stephen D. Mathewson, (The Art of Preaching Old Testament Narrative, p25f) writes:
Some evangelicals preach through an Old Testament narrative text by using the “captioned survey” form. Basically, this sermon develops through the points of an analytical outline. Usually, the preacher will state these points clearly so the listeners leave the sermon with an outline in their minds or at least on paper. For example, the sermon I preached several years ago on 1 Samuel 7 chewed its way through the following outline:
The Repentance of God’s People (7:2–6)
The determination to seek the Lord (v.
