I was asked by long-time fellow blogger John Brand if he could interview me about the subject of preaching. Here it is:
John’s site is www.preachersonpreaching.net (or here for the Facebook page).
Evangelical
We Do Not Face Sin Alone
The genealogy in Matthew 1:1-17 points to the fulfilment of the promises to Abraham and David. It also gets the reader thinking about the troubled reputation of several women in earlier days. In Matthew 1:18-25, we see another couple troubled by apparent sexual sin.
Joseph’s Gracious Plan (vv18-19)
Couples married young, and this young couple had their lives before them. The young carpenter and his younger bride-to-be. But then the ultimate slap in the face: Joseph discovers that Mary is expecting a child. It is not hard to imagine the shattered dreams, repulsive images, and emotional turmoil that Joseph endured.
Not only did this crisis mean their forthcoming wedding was a sham, but Joseph also now faced the shame of suspicion. The obvious pathway forward was to save face for himself by publically disgracing her and distancing himself. If he could be sufficiently indignant and distance himself, then maybe his honour could be saved. But Joseph did not choose the obvious path.
Public disgrace for Mary might have meant some sort of public execution by stoning, but even without that, public disgrace is too painful to describe in a shame and honour society. Joseph chose an incredibly gracious option: he would divorce her, and he would do so quietly. What would people say about him? The cloud of suspicion would linger, but Joseph looked out for the best interests of the girl whom he thought had sinned. Joseph’s selflessness is worthy of reflection, not least because we know what he didn’t – the identity of the baby inside her!
God’s Greater Plan (vv20-21)
During the agonizing turmoil of Joseph’s deliberation, new information was introduced. Perhaps he tossed and turned on his bed. The thoughts, the images, the options, the consequences. But the troubled young man must have slept, for an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream.
He was told not to fear taking Mary into his home. He was told that the baby was in her from the Holy Spirit. He was told to name the boy Jesus. And he was told why.
Jesus. The Hebrew name Joshua. Yeshua in Aramaic. However we might pronounce it, this was a name of significance. Actually, it was not unusual. There were lots of little Jesuses running around the neighbourhood for it was one of the most common boys’ names in Palestine at that time. But the angel didn’t just give the name choice, he also gave the reason. This boy would live up to His name – He would save people from their sins.
God’s Great Plan Predicted (vv22-23)
Matthew adds some theological commentary for the sake of the reader. Going back to Isaiah 7:14, Matthew quotes the prophet’s anticipation of a virgin giving birth to a special child with a special name. Ahaz may have been a king with all sorts of issues, but God was not out of touch with his struggling people. In fact, an unmarried woman was soon to give birth to a son of significance, and the significance was God’s presence with the people.
What was true in Ahaz’s day proved to be infinitely truer still with Mary. She was a virgin, unmarried, but with child. This time it was not a matter of sequencing prediction and then fulfilment by normal means. This time she truly bore a miracle child, a child whose significance could not be greater. Immanuel – God with us!
So what would Joseph do? Seems obvious: obey the angel. But not so fast. So he had insider information concerning the child inside her. The boy Jesus was to save the people from their sins and He would be God with us, Immanuel. All very well and perhaps worthy of some Christmas carols, but what about Joseph and Mary?
You can imagine his thinking. Two men come into his carpenter’s shop and request a bid on a certain job. Joseph tells them a price. They look impressed but concerned. Joseph adds a comment about how they could trust his word. Little boy Jesus runs in and starts playing with some wood blocks. They look at the child and whisper to each other. Joseph hears a snippet of a comment about an angel in a dream. They laugh and press him further for assurance on whether he can follow through on his bid. Joseph knows what they are thinking. They leave and go looking for another carpenter, one they can trust.
The stigma of the sinful reputation would linger for years. It could cost them on so many levels. How would he provide for them? How would Mary cope with the dagger comments in the market? How long until the child sensed what everyone thought? It wasn’t that nobody sinned in Nazareth, that was all too common. But when a couple perceived to be different turns out to be the same as everyone else, well, they don’t get treated the same as everyone else. And what about family? What would they say? Family, friends, work, and just about every aspect of life would be stained by the reputation of sinful infidelity.
Joseph’s Immediate Obedience (vv24-25)
Matthew leaves us with no doubt what kind of man Joseph was. He had been kind to Mary, even when he thought she had been unfaithful. And now he proved faithful to God when the days ahead looked so uncertain.
He took Mary into his home, thereby offering the protection and security she needed. A quick wedding was the best thing for all involved. Then he had no marital union with her until after she had the boy. And Joseph named the boy Jesus.
Three times Matthew points to the name of the child. Indeed, the significance of the birth story here is wrapped up in that name. Everyone thought they saw just a normal couple getting married in a hurry for the ‘normal’ reason and later giving birth to a son with a common name. But this was not normal in any way.
How could they face the uncertainties, the knowing looks, the suspicious smiles from family members, or worse, the rejection that may come their way? They could face the stigma of sin because this child was Jesus, the One who would save His people from their sin. This child was Immanuel, God with us.
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This post is adapted from chapter 9, Pleased to Dwell: A Biblical Introduction to the Incarnation (Christian Focus, 2014), 83-87.
Join us on a journey to Christmas this December. A new video every day walking through Pleased to Dwell (follow along with the book, or just the videos).
5 Easter Lessons from the Trials of Jesus
As we come to another Easter, our minds and hearts will be drawn back to the cross and the empty tomb. This is the central hinge of human history, and ground zero of our faith. As followers of Christ, we should never stray too far from his passion if we are going to follow him well, do good theology, or seek to offer hope in this world. We are a people birthed, marked, shaped, and transformed by the cross and the empty tomb.
God gave us four Gospels, and all four essentially offer a preparatory retelling of the ministry years of Jesus, followed by a slower and more detailed account of the Passion Week. That means we have many column inches given to other aspects of that first Easter. As well as the crucifixion and the resurrection, we also have a lot of details about Jesus’ clashes with the authorities, the Last Supper and Upper Room, Gethsemane, and the arrest and trials of Jesus. Let’s take just the trials, in particular. What might we notice as we move towards another Easter?
1. The trials did not all happen in one night. There are six trial hearings that occur between the arrest of Jesus and his crucifixion. However, the Jewish authorities had long determined that he was guilty and deserved to die. As we read through the Gospels we find their growing animus, their utter rejection of his authority, and their determination to put him to death. This final night of trials was the end of a process, it was not the beginning.
2. The trials are divided between the religious and the Roman. Jesus was arrested by a group of temple guards, with some Roman soldiers added to the posse. He was taken first to Annas for what is effectively a pre-trial hearing, then to Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin during the night, and then for a brief ratification of their decision at first light. The focus of these religious trials was Jesus’ teaching and identity. Then the Jewish leaders took him to Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea, for the Roman trial. Here the focus was his threat to Roman rule, and the emphasis had to shift to political concerns. Pilate offered a political peace offering to King Herod, a Roman-installed Tetrarch who had previously sent a complaint about Pilate to Caesar. Herod had wanted to meet Jesus but soon sent him back to Pilate for the sixth and final trial of that night/morning. Three religious trials. Three Roman trials.
3. The trials feel rushed and disorganized. The Jewish authorities had planned to arrest Jesus and deal with him before he could slip away from Jerusalem, but not during the feast. And then, during the Last Supper, Jesus revealed to Judas that he knew about the planned betrayal. Their secret was out, and so they rushed a plan into action. The rush resulted in them struggling to find two witnesses that would agree in front of the defendant during the night trial, and then coming to Pilate without a clearly defined charge in the morning. It all seems so chaotic and rushed – because it was. They were not planning to execute Jesus on that particular day. We can see that God’s plan for the timing required crucifixion on that particular day. The authorities were not in control.
4. The trials helpfully point us to other key characters. As we read through the trial accounts, we come across a number of incidental characters. There are soldiers mistreating Jesus (quite likely to have been Samaritan conscripts, since the Jews would not have joined the Roman ranks). There are the members of the Sanhedrin gathering in the shadows. There is Pilate’s wife, whose dream only increases Pilate’s superstitious nervousness around this decision. And there are some major characters too – Pilate was the most powerful man in the region. He was used to criminals cowering and begging for mercy but was amazed at the silent strength of Jesus. Peter had promised to die for Jesus, tried to kill for him in the garden, and then found himself in a series of mini-trials by the fire in the courtyard. Peter wept bitterly at his failure, but Judas’ grief was different. He was confronted by the deathly darkness of despair and plunged to his death that night. As you read the trial accounts, notice everyone who is mentioned.
5. The trials shine a glorious light on Jesus. And as you read the trial accounts, be sure to focus particularly on Jesus himself. The arresting party wasn’t in control. The mafia don of Jerusalem, Annas, was not in control. The High Priest was not in control. Nor Pilate the governor. Certainly not Herod the visiting King. No, the only one showing control, dignity, clarity of purpose, and strength of character, was Jesus himself. Watch for when he remains silent. Take note of what he says when he speaks. See how he supplies the Old Testament quotes that the High Priest needed to seal the decision. Recognize his gravitas before Pilate. Just as Jesus’ words from the cross help to shape our theology, so should his words in these trials. Jesus came to rescue us at such a great cost. And Jesus came to reveal the heart of his Father with such great clarity.
As we head into another Easter, let’s be sure to watch Jesus closely in the biblical text. He is our humble and regal Redeemer, rescuing us and revealing God to us. Thank God for Jesus, and thank God for the beautiful way he navigated those last hours before the cross.
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Join us for a mini-series that show how to study the Bible:
Studying the Bible – Learn!
I have completed a series of videos that detail the Learn phase of the Bible study process. Using 1 Peter 2:1-10, I look at the kind of thinking that goes into learning what a passage means. Good observation of the details in a passage will set us up to accurately learn what the text means as we study to determine the original author’s intended meaning. So, what goes into interpreting a Bible passage?
First, Look! We need to take time to notice what is in our passage. Here is a one-video summary of the Look! stage for this passage. So, onto the Learn stage:
1. Context: Historic – When was the passage written? What was happening at the time? What prompted the author to write it? What can we understand about the relevant cultures, the occasion for the writing, the situation at the time? (Click here for the video.)
2. Context: Written – The passage you are looking at sits within a book and therefore there is a written context to consider. What has come before your passage? What flows out from it? To understand a passage, you have to wrestle with the flow of the whole document. (Click here for the video.)
3. & 4. Content: Details – Remember all the details that we spotted in the Look stage of our study? Now we need to seek to understand them in light of the context of the passage. (Click here for the first video and click here for the second video on details!)
5. Content: Flow – How do the details work together in the flow of thought in this passage? It is so important to not only understand details, but to understand them in their most immediate context! (Click here for the video.)
6. Intent – What did the author intend to achieve through writing this passage? Are there clues within the passage, and are there indications within the book as a whole? (Click here for the video.)
After the Look! and the Learn! stage of Bible study, we will then move on to the Love/Live response (what should the text stir?) Here is a one-video summary of the Love/Live phase for this passage.
I will release another series that uses a different passage but focuses on the Love/Live phase instead of the Learn phase as I have this time. Hopefully, that makes sense! Please subscribe to the YouTube channel so that you can see the new videos as they are released.
7 Ways to Mishandle a Bible Story
The Bible is full of stories. And we preachers are full of ways to mishandle them. God has richly blessed us with the stories in the Bible. Each one reveals God’s heart and character. Each story is designed to point our hearts to Him and to stir our faith in His word and character. So, how can we go wrong?
Here are seven ways to mishandle a Bible story:
1. Skip – This is the assume-and-ignore approach. We can easily assume that everyone knows the story and so we skip the chance to tell the story. Instead, we put our homiletical energy into preaching about the theological ponderings triggered by the story. Why do we assume that everyone knows the story? Actually, why do we assume that what we have to say about it is of more value than what it actually says? Even if people do know the story, tell it anyway, and let God’s word work in your listeners.
2. Flip – This is the heretical approach. We can easily misdirect our listeners and end up preaching heresy inadvertently. Take the story of Zaccheus in Luke 19:1-10 for an example. It is easy to put all the initiative in Zaccheus’ commitment in verse 8. Then his salvation is affirmed by Jesus in verse 9. Voila, we are saved by our own commitment to Christ! Except, we are not. Jesus had already taken the initiative in verse 5. Jesus had already rescued Zaccheus. The exuberant generosity of verse 8 is a response to God’s grace, not a prerequisite for it.
3. Moralise – This is the fleshly approach. Since everyone naturally tends toward the notion of earning something with God, we can always and easily jump to what Bryan Chapell calls the “Deadly Be’s” – be like, be good, be disciplined. So with Zaccheus’ story? In verse 7 the crowd grumbled. Let’s not be like them, let’s not grumble. That verse is in the passage for a reason, but that little life lesson is not the reason. It is there to emphasize the wonder of what Jesus did for Zaccheus. It is not there to nudge us towards better behaviour.
4. Lecture – This is the historical-and-cultural-lecture approach. Use cultural and historical insights to bring the story to life, not to cut the story to death. How did the tax system work at that time? How might middle eastern hospitality respond to Jesus’ passing through the town? Where were sycamore-fig trees in relation to Jericho? Shine a light on the story and keep telling it, don’t end up giving a series of historical lectures trigged by the details in the story.
5. Over-reveal – This is the punchline-first approach. So with Zaccheus, you might state the first point as, “Jesus came to save the lost, verses 1-4.” Oops. In the passage, verse 10 comes as a surprise. The whole text has worked to point the reader to Zaccheus’ efforts to see Jesus. Then in the end it turns out Jesus was the one doing the seeking and the saving. Why give it away at the start? Do what the text does. Don’t “tell the punchline before the joke.”
6. Flatten – This is the lifeless-outline approach. Again, with the Zaccheus story, your points could be mind-numbingly flat: Jesus seeks the lost, Jesus rescues the lost, and Jesus reassures the lost. Honestly, I’m bored just writing that outline, even if it is fairly accurate. While it is true that the story develops in movements, it does not mean that the sermon has to sound like a logical progression through completely parallel points. That outline could work, but it needs a serious injection of energy.
7. Lose – This is the too-many-stories-along-the-way approach. The story of Zaccheus is a gripping little narrative if it is told well. But if you use every trigger point to tell another story, you will lose it. I once knew a tax collector . . . I had a short friend once . . . I have a fun tree-climbing story . . . I remember a grumbling crowd in 1987, etc. Let other illustrative materials be fairly succinct so that the focus remains on the main narrative of the sermon.
How else might we mishandle a Bible story? Biblical narratives are a dream for us preachers – let’s learn to handle them well so that they can do their mighty work in our hearts and those who will hear us!
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Click on this image to see the YouTube playlist of videos on Bible handling:
Studying the Bible – Look!
I have completed a series of videos that detail the Look phase of the Bible study process. Using the triumphal entry passage in John 12, I look at the kind of details that we need to notice as we look at a Bible passage. The more closely we look at and observe the text, the easier it will be to accurately learn what the text means in the next phase of our study. So, what type of details are we noticing?
1. Who? – Who is being referred to in the passage? How are they being described? Who do the pronouns refer to? This is the first and, in some ways, the most important detail to notice. Why? Because the entire Bible is primarily a revelation of God and so noticing who is in the passage should get us thinking about God from the very beginning. (Click here for the video.)
2. When? – Are there any time references in the passage? Perhaps a time of day, or a point on the calendar. But it is not just about explicit time references, there is also the whole issue of tenses. Is something written with a tense that stands out – perhaps a reference to the past or the future. (Click here for the video.)
3. Where? – Does the passage refer to any locations? These could be geographic (i.e. Jerusalem), or circumstantial (sitting on a donkey), or they could be out of this world (God’s throne). Notice any details to places or locations in the passage. Do you need to check a map to note a specific location? (Click here for the video.)
4. What? – This is a catch-all question! What is repeated? What seems to be significant? What other details are you seeing in the passage? What key terms are being used? (Click here for the video.)
5. Which? – Which other passages are feeding into the passage you are looking at? These could be earlier Biblical content that is being quoted or alluded to in the passage you are studying. Or it could be earlier passages in the same book that are influencing our understanding of the passage we are studying. (Click here for the video.)
6. How? – How did the writer choose to write the passage? Is it a narrative, poetry, or discourse? At the Look stage, we don’t need to conclude why they did it, but we do need to notice how it was written. (Click here for the video.)
After the Look! stage of Bible study, we will then move on to Learn (what does the text mean?) Here is a one-video summary of the Learn phase for this passage. And then there is the Love/Live response (what should the text stir?) Here is a one-video summary of the Love/Live phase for this passage. I will release another series that uses a different passage but focuses on the Learn phase instead of the Look phase as I have this time. Then another focusing on Love/Live. Hopefully, that makes sense! Please subscribe to the YouTube channel so that you can see the new videos as they are released.
5 Reasons to Study the Bible
Some Christians seem excited about Bible study, while others seem scared of the concept. Why should we invest time in studying the Bible? Here are five good reasons!
1. For spiritual life. Some years ago, I was pointed to a fascinating book about conversions in the Muslim world. I am sure you have heard of how God is using dreams and visions to bring Muslims to Jesus. The book’s author pointed out that when these testimonies are investigated, the dreams are a key link in a chain, but they are not the whole chain. In each case, the person had to encounter God’s written word before coming to faith in Christ.
When Jesus spoke to the religious leaders in John 5, he shocked them by saying they did not know God or have his word in them. These were men who spent hours in their scrolls every day. Jesus pointed out that they thought they could find life in the scriptures themselves, but actually, those scriptures were pointing to a person – him! (John 5:39) As we study the Bible, it points us to Jesus. As we meet Jesus, we find spiritual life itself. Knowing God the Father, through Jesus the Son, is the very essence of eternal life. (John 17:3)
2. For spiritual growth. Six times we have had the joy and privilege of bringing a newborn into our family. Life is relatively simple for the baby. Eat and sleep. And those regular meals with Mum result in the biggest growth spurt of their lives (even more than a teenage boy!) So Peter positively uses the analogy of milk to describe how the Bible will nourish us and grow us as believers. We should long for that sustenance so we can grow spiritually. (1Peter 2:2)
3. For spiritual maturity. That same analogy is also used in Hebrews but in a negative sense. The preacher to the Hebrews is concerned because these believers have not matured as they should. Instead of solid food, they are still on a liquid diet. Mature believers can discern between good and evil because they have been trained for the challenges of spiritual adulthood. Where should we look for solid food if the Bible provides spiritual milk? Still, the Bible – that part of the analogy remains consistent! (Hebrews 5:11-14) Have you ever met a genuinely mature believer who had arrived at that stage without a steady diet of the Bible shaping their life and character? No, nor me.
4. For spiritual effectiveness. We live in an era of unlimited opportunities. Where do you go if you want thorough equipping for ministry in the church, home, and workplace? There are so many seminars, workshops, books, courses and institutions inviting us to come along and learn. Paul wrote to Timothy and described the God-breathed usefulness of Scripture. It teaches, reproves, corrects and trains us. What is the result of that biblical influence in our lives? It is that we may be complete, equipped for every good work. That is quite the promise! (2Tim.3:16-17)
The Bible offers us salvation, spiritual growth, maturity and equipping for all aspects of life and ministry. Some might stop there, but there is another reason to study the Bible:
5. For spiritual delight. Psalm 1 introduces us to the righteous man who doesn’t allow the world’s message to shape his life. Instead, his delight is in the revelation of the Lord; on that word, he meditates day and night. Have you ever paused to ponder the word “delight” in Psalm 1:2? He does not merely concern himself with the message or even simply find his life instructions there. He delights in it. There is something about God’s very character, and therefore his inspired Word, that means we can read and study it for sheer delight. The ultimate reason to spend time in God’s Word is not that we have to, but because we get to! The heart of eternal joy and never-fading delight is opened toward us in the revelation of Scripture!
There are more reasons to read and study the Bible, but that’s a good starting point.
Enjoying the Word – Introduction
New year and new project! Last year I enjoyed working through the book of Psalms on YouTube. I hope those videos will be useful to more people this year as people choose to use them as companions in a journey through the Psalms. And now we are into a new year and a new project: Enjoying the Word.
Enjoying the Word will be a growing collection of videos that will hopefully help people to enjoy reading and studying the Bible. The first part of the sermon preparation process is the privilege of every believer – to spend time in God’s Word so that it gets into us and changes us.
The plan is to release short videos related to Bible reading and Bible study. I will share a simple process to think through the Bible study journey. I plan to release more mini-series called Pursuing God’s Heart Yourself. These short series use a single Bible book or section to illustrate important principles of biblical interpretation. And I may work through a Bible book or two from start to finish to show the workings of healthy Bible study.
I hope this will be helpful to you and to others you know. Please do let me know if you have questions or ideas for videos. And please share the resources with others too! As videos are liked and shared, and as more people subscribe to the channel, so these videos will get in front of more people. (You can click here to subscribe to the YouTube channel.)
I am also planning to write companion posts on this blog to point to individual videos or mini-series of videos. The subjects we will cover in the videos perfectly fit this blog, so why not?
The introductory video includes a quick look at a fantastic biblical truth!
Learning from a Different World – Part 2
Yesterday I wrote about how travel can impact our lives. I used the example of travelling to a very different country in East Africa, or interacting with a very different time and world in the former Communist bloc, and then the very different time, world and authority of the Bible.
Here are some follow-up observations that are true of all these “worlds” . . .
1. It is hard to learn the lesson from here. An East African tribe and environment is typically only familiar as an image on a nature documentary. An Eastern European recollection of living under the tyranny of communism generally feels like a report from history that is moving further away from our time. In the same way, the Bible seems very long ago and far away. And from here, it is hard to feel the impact that we should be feeling. That is why we must read our Bibles with imaginations both informed and active, and our hearts both eager and responsive.
2. It is easy to dismiss lessons that feel remote. While most would not express it verbally, there is an automatic tendency to dismiss lessons from contexts outside our own. That might explain why missionary reports of native sacrificial hospitality tend to garner smiles rather than change. That might also explain why the warning of communism tends to fall on deaf ears even when the contemporary plan of the elites to reshape the world is not hidden from sight. That might be a big part of why so many Christians feel so little impact from their Bible engagement – it simply remains too remote.
3. It takes humility to learn lessons from outside my small world. Humans always tend to think that their little neighbourhood is really the centre of the universe. And we tend to think our age is marked by the greatest level of sophistication ever known on earth. So, by default, our minds don’t believe we have anything substantial to learn from over there, or back then. Thus we can essentially ignore the tribal church leader with their insights on life, or the former communist church member with their warnings about the signs we are ignoring, or the biblical writer with their revelation of God. Human nature, naturally, will always scorn even the revelation of God himself. Our natural instinct is not humility and teachability when it comes to God’s Word. Hence the necessity of humility in genuine Christianity.
And so, what is true of travel geographically or historically, is even more true of our daily incursions into the world of God’s revelation. Be sure to go. Be open and eager to learn. Be humble and teachable. Be thankful that we have the Bible in our language – we don’t need to fly across oceans, or have access to the right people, or travel through time. We can open our Bible with open hearts, and enter into a world that God designed and inspired to rock our world!
Learning from a Different World
Travel can be transformational. By travel, I don’t mean layovers in airports en route to somewhere else (I’ve unsuccessfully visited some significant countries this way!) No, I mean genuinely visiting.
Let me share two examples and then make my point for us.
A “Third World Country” – How often have you heard people return from a missions trip and say that the local people taught them so much? It is a consistent message! I remember visiting an East African country and experiencing a completely different life.
There was the food, the wildlife, the weather, and the transport. The cultural differences hindered my teaching, but then again, they also supported it. There was that more remote tribe where the children could pick out their friends in a picture on my camera. And yet they could not recognise themselves because they had never seen a good reflection before. And there was much to learn from the simple lifestyle, not to mention the sacrificial hospitality. It was like stepping into a different world, and I came home changed by my visit.
A “Second World Country” – I visited an Eastern European country some years ago. We walked past the jail where political prisoners, including pastors, used to be held and tortured. Communism never has room for dissenters, free thinkers or any God except the state. Therefore church leaders and Christians are always a threat.
I remember asking a man driving me to a meeting what it was like to live under communism. He spoke of how some things worked, but nobody was free. He gave me two examples. He described living in a world where one in three people worked for the government as an informer. It meant that you would never speak openly about politics or religion. You never knew who would inform and lead to your arrest and the suffering that might also come to your family. And he described how everyone would dutifully buy the newspaper, signalling that they were good citizens. But they would never read it because everyone knew it was all government-controlled lies.
I have thought a lot about that conversation over the years. It was like a haunting warning from another country at another time. I often think about how our culture is moving towards that kind of community spying. We now live around people ready to call out anyone who breaks the brand new moral codes related to gender, sexuality and race. And we have technology constantly monitoring every click of the mouse, message from our keyboard or even word uttered by our mouth. And perhaps most concerning is the number of people who digest the messaging disseminated through our news media but don’t realise how controlled the messaging is. It is not hard to imagine our world morphing into another iteration of communism with millions of people naively celebrating such a sinister transformation of society! After all, it always comes out of a crisis for the good of the people.
The bottom line – Travelling to a different culture and meeting people who’ve lived in other times can hugely impact us. It should have a significant impact on us. Insightful lessons that will enrich our lives. Haunting warnings to protect us. If we have the privilege of travelling and go eager to learn, it will change us.
So, what do we do as Christians when we open our Bibles? What happens when we preach the Bible to others? We get to travel to a different world.
1. A different world geographically & culturally – Good bible study and biblical preaching will take our imaginations to the battlefields of ancient Israel, the throne rooms of ancient kings, the living rooms of ancient peasants, and the discussion forum of ancient philosophers. We will visit the Sinai peninsula’s wilderness, the fishing villages of Galilee, the arid hills around Jerusalem, the stormy Mediterranean sea, and strategic cities around one section of the Roman empire.
2. A different world educationally – Good bible study and biblical preaching will take our hearts right into the crowd hearing Moses preach. Or we might join the crowd hearing an Old Testament prophet proclaim God’s message. We might sit on the grass and hear Jesus teach. Or perhaps overhear the apostles announcing the resurrection. We will spend time being mentored by the experience of a young shepherd fighting for his nation, a want-away prophet running from his calling, or a height-challenged tax collector hiding in a tree. Wonderful enrichment for life and haunting warnings await us if we just travel into the Bible with our hearts open and ready to learn.
3. A different world entirely – Good bible study and biblical preaching take us to faraway lands and insightful mentors and, beyond that, give us a glimpse into another world. The Bible is not an old travelogue. We are earthbound and tend to think very “down here” kinds of thoughts. But heaven has broken into our world, and we can hear from the world of love where God is forever reigning, without caveat or coup. We might pray, “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” In the Bible, we get not only those words to pray but also the life-changing revelation of what that all means.
Every day we have the privilege of travel with all its life enrichment, haunting warnings and unique mentoring opportunities. Open your Bible with an open heart. And every time we share our biblical travels with others in conversation or preaching, we can take them with us. Don’t shortchange yourself or others by simply grabbing for an applicational point or a quick anecdote.
Too many of us visit the world of the Bible like a traveller in transit through an airport. We might pick up a local bar of chocolate in a kiosk, but we haven’t truly been to the country, and our lives show no evidence of impact. What would it look like to really go? To meaningfully visit? To spend time with the people, to see the sights, to be lastingly changed?
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By the way, after going through the Psalms in 2022 on YouTube, I am planning to spend the next months offering short videos related to the subject of studying and enjoying our Bibles. Please let me know, at any time, if you have an idea that would help that playlist become more useful to you or your church!
Biblical Preaching 