When you mount the steps to the pulpit and are about to speak God’s Word on His behalf, let these exhortations come to mind:
• Preach to honor God’s Word.
• Preach to reach the unconverted.
• Preach to please God.
• Preach to equip Christians for the work of the ministry.
• Preach to lift up the downhearted.
• Preach to be more effective this time than last.
• Preach to bring conviction of sin and repentance.…
There was a time when preaching single verse sermons was the norm. In some places, it still is.
Should we, or shouldn’t we, preach single verse sermons?
Peter Mead offers the following guidance:
1. If a single verse is a complete unit of thought, great! For instance, many proverbs stand alone as a complete unit of thought and can be profitably preached as such.
2. If a single verse conveys the main idea of the unit of thought, great!…
Gen 3:16 To the woman he said,
“I will greatly increase your labor pains;
with pain you will give birth to children.
You will want to control your husband,
but he will dominate you.”
NRSV –
Gen 3:16 To the woman he said,
“I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children,
yet your desire shall be for your husband,
and he shall rule over you.”
ESV (2011):
“Your desire shall be for your husband,
and he shall rule over you.”…
Too often, writes Daniel Akin, preachers focus on what they preach at the expense of why (or to what purpose) they are preaching it.
Here is a (non-exhaustive) list:
I’ve heard it said that what happens in the USA happens here in the UK, twenty years later.
If that’s so, then we’d better take the following to heart.
William Willimon, Dean of the chapel at Duke University, recently stated, “Today’s conservatives sound like yesterday’s liberals.” In a fascinating article titled “Been there, preached that.” (Leadership, Fall 1995) Willimon sounds a prophetic warning to evangelicals, that they might not be seduced by the sirens of modernity and follow the path of tragic insignificance which mainline denominations have trod.…
Extracts from notes by Danny Akin from Rick Warren’s conference presentation.
There are some real nuggets here.
6 things I know about every audience
1. Everybody wants to be loved.
2. Everybody wants their life to count (meaning, purpose, significance.)
3. No matter how wealthy or successful life is empty without Christ.
4. Many of these people are carrying a load of guilt.
5. Many are consumed with bitterness (from past offenses.)
6. There is a universal fear of death.…
‘A fourth generation preacher, Simon Ponsonby came to personal faith in his late teens. He worked as a butcher, then became an evangelist and church planter, before preparing for ordination at Trinity College, Bristol, where he gained his BA & MLitt in Theology. After serving a curacy in Bradford, he became Oxford Pastorate Chaplain in 1998. Simon took up the position of Pastor of Theology at St Aldates in 2005, a role that combines teaching, travelling and writing.’…
In her book The Historical Jesus: a Guide for the Perplexed Helen Bond sets out what might be regarded as a ‘main-stream’ critical view of the virginal conception of Jesus.
Bond notes, first, that ‘large parts of the New Testament appear to know nothing about the virginal conception.’ That, of course, is an argument from silence, and therefore rather flimsy.
She then turns to what she regards as ‘three competing alternatives’ emerging from what the NT texts do say on this matter.…
The next section of Tim Chester’s book, Do Miracles Happen Today? that I would like to summarise is that part of chapter 5 which deals with ‘miracles and the purposes of faith.’
Chester believes (with John Stott) that miracles are certainly possible, but not as common as they were in, say that time of Jesus and the apostles, because one of the main purposes for miracles – attesting to God’s unfolding revelation – no longer applies.…
A third section of Tim Chester’s Do Miracles Happen Today? that I would like to consider is the part of chapter 4 where he outlines the circumstances in which miracles are more likely to happen today.
1. On the frontline of mission. John Stott writes: ‘Especially on the frontiers of mission, where a power-encounter may be needed to demonstrate the lordship of Christ, miracles have been and are being reported.’
As Chester says: ‘There are a number of things that make people more inclined to pay attention to the Christian message: the lives of Christians (Titus 2 v 9-10); our response to persecution (1 Peter 2 v 11-12); the community life of the church (John 13 v 35; 1 Peter 3 v 8-15); the worship of the gathered congregation (1 Corinthians 14 v 23-25).…
