A significant part of a preacher’s work is book work. We simply cannot feed the sheep if we are not feeding ourselves, and the primary way we feed ourselves is by reading. But the threats against a pastor’s reading are many. We have many responsibilities, each of them competing to gain the best of our time. These…
“The aim of this book is to provide a handbook for preachers that will help them apply a consistently Christ-centered approach to their sermons” (ix). So commences Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture by Graeme Goldsworthy, an exceptionally well-crafted manual on hermeneutics by Graeme Goldsworthy, a lecturer in Old Testament, biblical theology, and hermeneutics at Moore…
Shepherds feed sheep. And the main way we feed sheep is by teaching and preaching the word of God. This means that the planning and delivery of sermons is one of our highest priorities. But it’s easy for preachers to fall into unbalanced patterns that fail to feed the flock with the full scope of…
Expository preaching takes discipline. It is hard work to do careful exegesis of the next passage and craft a fresh, well-balanced message that is both biblically faithful and culturally relevant, with clear explanation of the text, engaging and colorful illustrations, and thoughtful application to the lives of our people. Sunday mornings come back around with…
In his classic book Preaching and Preachers, Martyn Lloyd-Jones described three different kinds of sermons that every pastor needs to preach: 1. Sermons that teach or instruct. These are messages for the church with a more doctrinal or theological focus. 2. Sermons that edify. These are also messages for the church, but with a more “experimental”…
“He was a burning and a shining light.” – Jesus on John the Baptist (John 5:35) In a sermon on John 5:35, Jonathan Edwards insisted that two things must be married in the heart and life of a preacher: light and heat. He must not only shine, but burn. If a minister has light without heat,…
When I set out to write on the craft of sermon preparation, I didn’t get far before realizing that isolating the mechanics of preparing a sermon from the biblical teaching on a pastor’s calling runs the risk of reducing this tremendous responsibility to a list of techniques. Paul does tell Timothy to rightly handle the…
How do you prepare sermons? I hear the question fairly often. And, of course, there are whole books written to answer this question, and some very good ones, too. My method is not the only one to use, and, in fact, I rarely follow every step in full detail. The preparation of each sermon is…
You’ll build a great church, pastor, if you ever learn how to communicate. Listening to that sermon was like drinking from a fire hydrant. I’m so disappointed! I wanted you to give God all the glory. And you missed it! Your preaching is too intellectual. Your preaching is too practical. You don’t talk enough about…
One of my heroes is Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the famous Baptist pastor of nineteenth century London. In reading Spurgeon, I am convinced that one of the secrets behind the extraordinary fruitfulness of his ministry and the enduring legacy of his sermons was his relentless focus on the person and work of Christ. Spurgeon’s Christ-centered focus…
