Gospel Preaching – 2

May 22, 2014May 21, 2014 / Peter Mead / 2 Comments

So how do we preach the gospel to believers? Or even, do we? I grew up in a church setting where there was a great chasm between the Sunday evening gospel service (an ABC’s presentation of the gospel and how to become a Christian) and the midweek believers Bible study (often a gospel-less teaching of some biblical section). We naturally divide gospel from teaching and consequently end up with a view that the gospel is for newcomers, while a different message is needed for spiritual maturity.

With the different message often comes an apparent contradiction. Now you are saved by grace, here’s the work list for you to do. Your growth is up to you. Work hard now. Get your pen and paper because I have a to do list for you this week. It is different than the gospel, but that is okay because you have now graduated from needing the gospel service to needing training in the believer’s service.

The glorious indicatives of Paul’s letters now give way to the pressure of the imperatives as believers need to buck their ideas up and press on to maturity.

Hence we come to the great debate. Do we grow by obedience to instruction? Or do we grow by learning our new identity? (*And is there a third option that nobody seems to mention?)

The tension over sanctification is not one that started brewing three years ago. It was a debate a generation ago under different labels than it is today. It has been a debate between preachers for generations. It was an issue during key moments in previous centuries, a point of division after the Reformation, a disagreement at the start of the second millennium and a source of disagreement right back in Augustine’s day. Actually, it was an issue as the New Testament was being written.

So which way should we lean in the debate over the nature of our ministry? Do we have to decide between obedience and identity? Is the motor for Christian living self-effort or gratitude (*or is there a third motor that is going unmentioned today?)

Gospel Preaching

May 21, 2014 / Peter Mead / 4 Comments

It might seem obvious, but evangelical ministry is about preaching the gospel. Life transforming good news. Surely everyone agrees at that basic level? Apparently not. There is significant debate swirling about what it means to preach the gospel, not only to unbelievers, but especially to believers.

There is generally a greater degree of consensus about preaching the gospel to unbelievers. The gospel is the good news of God’s grace in Christ. It is focused on Christ’s death and resurrection, and it calls for people not to work for salvation, but to trust. By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

But there is debate, of course. Is the gospel a proclamation of what God has done in Christ, or is the gospel a call to repent and believe? Is it just semantics to argue over whether the call to repent and believe is the gospel, or whether it is the appropriate response to the gospel? I don’t think so. This is important, because it demonstrates the preacher’s underlying assumption about how humans function and how salvation functions.

At Pentecost Peter stood and preached a proclamation of what God had done in Christ and the culpability of those present in their rejection of Christ (*and another ingredient that apparently has now been removed from gospel discussions – more on that later). The repent and believe element came in answer to their question of what they should do.

As you read on through Acts, the preaching of the gospel is repeatedly seen to be a declaration of who God is, what he has done in Christ, that Christ is raised and so on. Repeatedly we read of sinners who turn, or repent, toward God. It is a personal and relational turn from self or from rebellion against God or from idolatrous ignorance. The repentance theme in Acts is not one associated with sinful behaviour and a turn to good behaviour.

Paul makes it clear in his epistles that his preaching ministry was one of heralding Christ and him crucified. As he speaks of his preaching ministry he says a lot about his motives, his methods and his content. He proclaimed Christ and him crucified. He didn’t let his focus shift onto pressuring and controlling responses from his hearers, allowing God to generate the response rather than playing the role of ultimate persuader. As he applied the gospel to the situations in the churches to which he wrote, Paul’s focus was explicitly on Christ (*and another ingredient that seems to have been removed from gospel discussions – more on that later). The imperatives that flow out of the indicatives of gospel proclamation tend to describe what is expected of those “in Christ,” rather than an action list that loses sight of Christ as the focus shifts to self-determined effort and the hard graft of sanctification.

Underlying the way we preach the gospel is our view of how humans work, the nature of sin and the nature of salvation. More tomorrow.

The Missing Dimension – Part 2

May 6, 2014 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Yesterday we looked at John 5. What a chapter. Jesus was accused of encouraging Sabbath breaking. He turned that charge into one of apparent blasphemy, then proceeded to defend himself against the accusation. For ten verses he laid out truths about life-giving and judgment in respect to his relationship with his Father. Then from verses 30-47 the defendant turned prosecutor as he went after his accusers with a sequence of witnesses that not only defended his position, but highlighted the culpability of his accusers. It is wonderful legal drama.

At the climactic moment in that sequence, Jesus poked his accusers in the chest in respect to their handling of the Bible. They searched for top tips in order to receive glory for each other, but they were blind to the revelation of God through his Son in the Old Testament. They cared for horizontal glory rather than vertical glory.

This raises an issue we should ponder. When we study a Bible passage, not least when we are preparing to preach. We need to be alert to a couple of realities:

1. Look for God’s self-revelation, not just for life advice (or even for a sermon). Wonderfully, our God wants to be known much more than we naturally want to know him. And we need to recognize that our natural tendency will always be to not see him, but to default back to seeing the Bible content as material for our sake. Some naturally default to intellectual curiosity, others to intellectual skepticism, others to life coaching tips, etc. Whatever the default nuance may be, the default orientation will be toward self rather than toward God. Only as he stirs our hearts and gives us a taste for knowing him will we discover the delight of pursuing the God who first pursued us.

2. As you look at Jesus, he looks at you. Jesus does not remain simply the object of our curiosity. As we study him, he turns that around to study us. As we accuse him, we find ourselves convicted. As we probe his character, we find our own character probed. The shift from defendant to accused found in John 5 is a shift we experience all the time if our eyes are him. This turns Bible study into a glorious conversation, if we are willing to engage in such.

The Missing Dimension in Biblical Interpretation

May 5, 2014 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Interpreting a biblical passage is a critical element of the preacher’s task. Principles of hermeneutics should be readily accessible to the good preacher, second nature really.

Numerous hermeneutics textbooks list the principles – awareness of literary form and the influence of genre; concern for the grammatical choices made the author in his efforts to be understood; the significance of authorial intent; knowledge of the relevant historical background factors influencing the meaning of the text – such as geography, religio-politics, culture, etc.; deep sensitivity to the written context, both immediate and within the flow of the book as a whole; recognition that scripture does not contradict scripture, but does interpret scripture, yet the importance of remaining focused on the particular text, and so on.

But there is one key dimension that tends to be overlooked in hermeneutics texts and yet should be front and centre in our concern as preachers. Perhaps we should call it the moral blindness principle, or the interpreter’s heart principle.

Jesus put his finger on the issue in John 5. As he spoke to the trained religious elite of his day, he turned defense into attack. He had been accused of breaking the Sabbath, to which he made sure they accused him of something more substantial (see v18). Then he laid out some key truths in respect to the Father and Son, around issues of life-giving and judgment (see vv19-29).

From verse 30 he started pointing directly at his accusers and speaking in the first and second person. He called his witness in support of his claim, (acknowledging John the Baptist in passing), who was first and foremost his own Father. Yes, there were the works he did, but the focus is really his Father. But then he made it very personal. He told the Jewish leadership that they had never seen him, didn’t know him and didn’t have his word in them. That is strange, these were the Bible quoting leadership fraternity of Jerusalem. How could they be accused of not having the Bible down?

Jesus threw a hermeneutical failure at them. They were certainly diligent, searching the Scriptures for top life tips, but they missed the person revealed there. How? Because they did not have the love of God in them. How could that be? Because of a mutually exclusive issue that might be one of the greatest dangers we face as preachers . . .

They were concerned about the horizontal reality of what people thought of them, which meant they were not concerned about the vertical reality of what God thought. They loved getting glory from each other, rather than the glory that comes from God.

That is moral blindness. That is the principle of the interpreter’s heart. If my heart is concerned about what people think of me, I may well be blind to the truth of the text I claim to understand and then proclaim to others. If you preach, ponder this principle prayerfully – it is one we cannot afford to miss.

With Me: Luke’s Easter Narrative

April 16, 2014April 15, 2014 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

I have just written a blog that underlines one of Luke’s tools in his Gospel writing – he loves to use pairs. Actually, he uses them for two reasons and if you are preaching from Luke this Friday or Sunday, you should be aware of this key feature in his wonderful Gospel. To read the article, click here.

Guest Series: Preaching Wisdom – Part 6

April 15, 2014April 9, 2014 / Peter Mead / 2 Comments

Guest blog: My good friend, Huw Williams, has offered this series on preaching wisdom literature. Huw is the pastor of the International Church in Torino, Italy, where he lives with his wife and daughter. Here is his personal blog. Thanks Huw!

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And to finish off the list . . .

6. Be aware of who is truly wise. Step back and think of wisdom literature as a whole genre for a moment, consider the dynamic that is going on. In it’s simplest form it is this – a wise person is offering his wisdom to someone who is less wise. Remember this is not the same as knowledge or information, it is personal not abstract, it is applied in the complex situations of life, and we all stand alongside Rehoboam while the offer is made – who will we listen to – wisdom or folly?

The wise person comes to us in the written word, as a person of authority, of greater wisdom, or greater experience of what it means to live in God’s world, and in God’s way. That wisdom runs right through Proverbs, it is what is being searched for in books like Ecclesiastes. Think of the massive climax towards the end of Job when God breaks into the discussion with His wisdom – it’s huge, isn’t it? In wisdom literature, the wise person offers their wisdom for us to benefit from, freely. Can you see where this is going? Wisdom finds its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Listen to what Paul says in 1 Cor 1:26-31:-

“Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.””

That’s why I said earlier in the week that when we get into wisdom literature, it can seem as though those big themes of the Bible have been laid aside for a while. They haven’t been, but we might need to work a little harder to see them and we need to need to be very wary of preaching wisdom in a way which is purely focused on temporary benefit for us. Proverbs are too often preached as “super-tips” for a better life now only. Be wary of approaching Song of Solomon in a way which only celebrates human sexuality in this life. Watch out for an understanding of Job that gives answers to suffering in this life without lifting our eyes to eternity. Let’s not preach wisdom in a way which only celebrates His gifts without lifting the eyes of our listeners to the wonder of the giver.

Guest Series: Preaching Wisdom – Part 5

April 14, 2014April 9, 2014 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

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Continuing the list of areas for special attention, so far we have had beware of self-improvement, beware of making promises out of proverbs, and preach thought units. Last in the list:

4. Consider what it means to preach a reflective genre… reflectively. We have already seen that wisdom literature requires reflection. How might this impact our sermons in this genre? We need to give serious thought as to how we can encourage reflection in our listeners, even if it is only for the time we are standing up there preaching. Two thoughts on this; firstly avoid information overload. This is true for preaching any genre, but nowhere is it more important that in preaching wisdom. Don’t bombard people with dozens of different thoughts or ideas; it doesn’t encourage reflection, it encourages confusion, headaches and people to stop listening altogether.

Conversely then, create space. Create space to work out illustration and application – “You cannot serve both God and money” isn’t a proverb, but it is a good example of a relatively short journey from original context to contemporary application. But wisdom like Proverbs 15:5 “A fool spurns a parent’s discipline, but whoever heeds correction shows prudence.” will take some time to unpack. How does it apply for people who don’t have God-honouring parents? What about people whose parents have died or who no longer under their parents’ authority in the way they once were? Does this proverb no longer apply to them? If so, how? And what are the subtle ways we all try to squirm out of correction – wherever it comes from? Be creative, take time to explore this piece of wisdom from as many angles as you can. Finally, create space to think, respond, pray. Why not give people time to do this at some point in your sermon (and not necessarily just at the end)?

5. Identify the central issue of a book. This is crucial. In a book like Job, it is easy to forget that the central tension of the book is presented very clearly in chapter 1, Satan says to God that Job loves God not for who He is, but for what He gives Job. The accusation is that Job loves God’s stuff more than he loves God. And the tension of the rest of the book is, in many ways, an exploration of that accusation – will Job’s faith stand up to the accusation, or not? It’s important to work out everything which follows in light of this. In Ecclesiastes you have to go to the end of the book to find the central issue – (12:13–14) Keep this conclusion as your focal point as you drive those windy roads of Ecclesiastes!

Guest Series: Preaching Wisdom – Part 4

April 11, 2014April 9, 2014 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

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4. Areas for special attention

So let’s try and get down to nuts and bolts. What practical steps can we take to try and improve our preaching of wisdom literature?

1. Beware of self-improvement. It is all too easy to focus on the fact that Job ended up with more stuff at the end of the story than he had when it started, or to preach Proverbs 22:4 in such a way that we motivate our listeners with the prospect of material blessings now, rather than the glorious treasure that awaits us when Christ appears. It’s true, wisdom literature seems at times to focus on material blessings in this life, but I think there is more going on here – and more on that later.

2. Beware of making promises out of proverbs. Yesterday, I mentioned the example of Proverbs 22:6 (“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”), we need to teach this in a way which both understands and communicates that proverbs are generally true, they not promises. This proverb is saying that if 100 sets of parents train their children up in the gospel, more will become followers of Christ than won’t, but this is not a promise that 100% will. Wisdom literature often provides us with general truths, not promises to be claimed.

3. Preach thought units. In his excellent book “Preaching With Variety”, Jeffrey Arthurs points out that Proverbs are often grouped together, though the connection between them can be quite subtle and not always obvious. Look hard, reflect, pray to identify those units of thought. And don’t be afraid to use a good commentary. Arthurs also suggests taking a more thematic approach to Proverbs, where you can draw together a few proverbs on the same theme (laziness, alcohol, parenting, old-age and youth) from different parts of the book. Also, there’s nothing wrong with simply preaching a whole sermon on one proverb.

In other wisdom books, the units of thought are often much larger. I’ve heard of someone preaching through Job a verse a week, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

We will complete this list next time . . .

Guest Series: Preaching Wisdom – Part 3

April 10, 2014April 9, 2014 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

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3. Be aware of the challenges in preaching wisdom literature.

I’ve already mentioned some of the challenges in teaching wisdom. But there are other challenges – how about the theological question of preaching wisdom literature? Think of some of the big Bible themes – creation, sin, promise, redemption, and so on. When you dive into wisdom literature, it can seem as though these big subjects get very little development as we read through the wisdom literature. And even when they are mentioned, it might be hard to see how our understanding is developed therein. Song of Solomon is a good example – I mean, what is it about? There’s a whole lot of stuff in there on men and women and well… you know what I mean. But what has this got to do with those important big Bible doctrines? If you’ve read anything on the Song of Solomon, you’ll see this tension getting to people – there’s a big debate going on – some people will tell you that it’s basically some kind of sex manual for happily married Christians, others will tell you that it is nothing of the sort, that it is a book about Christ and his church. I’ll leave you to do the reading on that, but I’m convinced that the argument itself comes from this apparent disappearance of the grand narrative of the Bible story. I say apparent because we’ll pick up on this later in the week.

Another problem, more practical perhaps, comes when we try to preach from a book like Proverbs. How should we divide the text up? A chapter at a time? A verse at a time? Is there really a connection between these proverbs that can help us draw our thinking together into a unified sermon message? And what about Job? Even breaking the text up into sizeable chunks is still likely to make for a lengthy sermon series. Or Ecclesiastes – how many messages are you going to take to get through this book? One or more?

Then there’s the issue of how wisdom literature functions. Think of verses like Proverbs 22:6 (“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”) or Proverbs 15:22 (“Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.”) Don’t many of us will know godly parents who faithfully taught their children the gospel all their lives, and whose hearts are now breaking for those same children as they are far from Christ? And didn’t Rehoboam surround himself with not one but two teams of counsellors?

I’ll attempt some answers tomorrow, but for now let’s be aware of the challenges in preaching wisdom literature, and not rush in without a proper respect for the sophistication of this beautiful genre.

Guest Series: Preaching Wisdom – Part 2

April 9, 2014 / Peter Mead / 1 Comment

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2. Know why it is important to preach wisdom

With the exception of the Psalms, wisdom literature is very often neglected by Bible teachers and readers alike. Why is this, and what do we miss out on when we neglect wisdom literature?

Firstly, we miss out on the necessity of reflection. Now of course, all scripture requires us to reflect on it, and to meditate on it. But think about it for a moment, I was preaching recently on Luke 14 and an incident of Jesus healing a man on the Sabbath. It was a narrative passage, and so none of us in the room had much of a problem with what the passage was saying in the immediate sense – a sick man came to Jesus on the Sabbath, and Jesus healed him. I suspect that sadly, not everyone hearing that sermon believed that the miracle actually happened, and sadly, not everyone understood the significance of what Luke was saying about who Jesus is, but do I think that at the very least, everyone present understood the passage in it’s immediate sense – that Luke says a sick man came to Jesus and that he got healed by Jesus.

But imagine now that I am preaching this Sunday on Proverbs 30:18-19:-

18 “There are three things that are too amazing for me,

four that I do not understand:

19 the way of an eagle in the sky,

the way of a snake on a rock,

the way of a ship on the high seas,

and the way of a man with a young woman.

What is the immediate meaning of this passage? What is it saying, in order for us to reflect on it? That’s a bit harder, isn’t it? And I suspect that many of us stop reading at this point, and flick over to Philippians to find something with a clearer immediate meaning. But this is the point – wisdom literature underlines to us the necessity of reflection. This proverb is inviting me to stop what I’m doing, to reflect, to take time to think about what this could possibly mean, what the connection is between these four “ways” and in doing so, to get a little wiser.

Many of us don’t like reflection. We live in the internet age of social media and immediate information, preferably in 160 characters or less. But wisdom literature defies that approach to life and demands that we slow down, maybe even that we stop what we are doing, and that we consider. Sadly one of the reasons why we neglect wisdom literature, is that we have lost the art of reflection.

Think of the book of Job – it’s a long book. Who of us hasn’t struggled through some of those passages and wondered if it will ever end? Again it’s tempting to turn forward a few hundred pages in order to find something a little easier to understand – but that is kind of the point – and it’s all wrapped up in the genre itself. We might be looking for an easy answer to the problem of suffering, something we can post on Twitter or Facebook, but God refuses to give us that kind of answer, He gives us a proper answer, He gives us the book of Job. And it is a cosmically-proportioned book, to discuss a cosmic struggle.

So let’s know why it’s important to preach wisdom. Tomorrow we’ll look at some of the specific challenges.