“A faithful minister will…never allow anything to be credited to him, or his office, which belongs to his divine Master. He will say like Paul, “we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.” (2 Cor. 4:5.) To commend Christ dying, and rising again for the ungodly–to make known Christ’s love and power to save sinners, this will be the main object of his ministry. “He must increase but I must decrease,” will be a ruling principle in all his preaching. He will be content that his own name be forgotten, so long as Christ crucified is exalted.”

J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts On the Gospels, Volume 2. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2007), 95-96.

I love to read and I love to preach, so as you can imagine, books on preaching are usually very good experiences for me. With that in mind, I was very anxious to jump into this book and to process all that Darrell Johnson had to say about The Glory of Preaching. Unfortunately, I was let down. This book was not great for me. And truly, it may not be that the book is that bad, but simply that there are so many books on preaching that eclipse this one.

However, as is nearly always the case, all is not lost in this book. Chapter three, which deals exclusively with expository preaching is the books greatest contribution. On the opening page of htat chapter, we read this from Johnson,

In what mode does human speaking of human words become the speaking of words that are the word of God? And the ansewr I want to commend to all who preach is in expository preaching. It is the only place I know where I can stand and have any confidence that what I say is what the living God is saying. it is the only place I know wehre we mere humans can dare to say or think, “thus says the Lord.”

Johnson’s conviction that expository preaching is the only true and proper mode of preaching is timely for today. It is this conviction, no doubt, that leads Johnson to conclude, “expository preaching is not about getting a message out of the text; it is about inviting people into the text so that the text can do what only the text can do.” This invitation into the text, according to Johnson, is an invitation to meet the God of the universe on his terms.

Unfortunately, Johnson’s work seems to go down hill from there. An entire chapter on verbs of participation was painful for me to read. Further, in his chapter on application and implication, I believe Johson goes entirely too far in suggesting that application not be made by the preacher. Relying on the fact that ultimate application can and does come only from the Lord, Johnson seems to argue for open ended sermons. Unfortunately, this concept does not leave open the necessity of application in the sermon when texts are imperative in nature.

The fact of the matter is no one can apply the text but the Lord of the text; he is the only one who can “make it happen.” To expect preachers to apply the text for their listeners is to ask them to play God. have you ever thought about it this way? preachers can “imply the text,” suggesting and showing the necessary, inherent, logical consequences for life which the text is declaring. But a preacher cannot ball the listeners to make th text relevant to their lives. the only things the preacher can do is enter into the new reality announced and described, and by the power of the Spirit of the text, “live into” the new reality.

The purpose of application in the sermon is never to usurp the role of God in “applying” the text, but rather to be tools of the Spirit to leverage the application of the text into the lives of its hearers. This is one of the greatest weaknesses of the book.

He closes with chapters on the person of the preacher and the life of the preacher which are worth while. The chapter on the life of the preacher is especially well written.

In summary then, two of the ten chapters in this book are solid and worthwhile, but the remaining eight are shaky at best. If you want to buy one preaching book, don’t buy this one because there are many resources that you will find more useful. If, however, you love books on preaching and want to build your preaching library, buy this book for the two great chapters and skim through the others.

The Rise of Evangelicalism by Mark Noll chronicles the beginnings of evangelical Christianity during the first Great Awakening in the Eighteenth Century through the ministries of Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, John and Charles Wesley, William Wilberforce, and others. Noll does a great job of objectively identifying both the spiritual issues that led to great outpourings of the Holy Spirit as well as the social, economic, and political structures that made the Western World ripe for the rapid spread of the gospel through dissenting Christianity.

Noll points out that Evangelicalism, from its inception, has covered a wide range of theological perspectives and socio-economic classes. Quoting David Bebbington, however, Noll outlines four essential ingredients of evangelicalism:

• Conversion-or the “belief that lives need to be changed.
• The Bible-”belief that all spiritual truth is to be found in its pages
• Activism-dedication of all believers (lay and clergy) to live lives of service for and towards God, especially as manifested in evangelism
• Crucicentrism-conviction that Christ’s death was the crucial matter in providing atonement.

Noll also points out theological convictions that were held across the board for evangelicalism:

• Almost all believed in original sin
• They believed in Justification by faith
• they believed in substitutionary atonement
• They affirmed sanctification through the power of the Holy Spirit

The Rise of Evangelicalism is well balanced in its perspective of the evangelical church. So, for instance, Noll lauds the church for its social involvement in abolishing slavery, but also faults the church for not finding social activism in other areas such as the rights of workers for proper working conditions in Britain. Noll also seems to point some shame on the evangelical church for its lack of commitment to scholarship throughout the history of the movement, pointing out the oddity that Jonathan Edwards is both the first and greatest scholar of the evangelical movement.

The recognition by Noll, that the rise of evangelicalism was primarily about the desire of others to spread the gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing this about makes this book a great resource for the evangelical reader. Noll has provided a great work for anyone interested in understanding more about the beginnings of the evangelical church. I would gladly recommend this book.

A fellow student at North Greenville University posted this well known C.S. Lewis quote on Facebook earlier today:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, The MacMillan Company, 1960, pp. 40-41.)

The weightiness of Lewis’ statement should not escape us as we step behind the sacred desk. The Gospel is not Jesus’ moral teachings. It may include them, but too often the occupiers of the pulpits of our churches preach Jesus’ teachings and not the cross. If He had not gone to the cross, all of His words would have to be vain ramblings. However, the cross gives validity to all His words. It showed beyond a shadow of a doubt that not only did He mean what He said, but was willing to live it out. Not only validity, but because of the impartation of the Holy Spirit, the cross gives the believer power to live out Christ’s teachings in their life. Those who fill the pews of Christ’s church need to know Christ’s teachings, but those teachings help them none without knowing the Christ who not only taught, but hung on a cross.

We cannot stop there! We must point past the rugged tree to the place where, “He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:9) To the place where,

“on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.” (Luke 24:1-9)

Do not neglect proclaiming that Christ the Lord has risen. He died to be “the propitiation for our sins” (I John 2:2; 4:10) but rose, “the first-born from the dead” (Colossians 1:18; Revelation 1:5), offering to us the right to be called “a child of God” (John 1:12) and “fellow heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17). This is the message of the Gospel. This is the message Christ preached. This is the message the Apostles preached. This is the message we are to preach.

“Furthermore, an ultimatum should be used in our message, citing the judgment of God on the unrepentant.  This is the only effective means that will cause a fleeing man to surrender to Christ.  Judgment is the reality he cannot escape if he persists in fleeing from Christ, and therefore, it has great force in causing a fugitive to stop in his flight.  Yet our warning should be given in love and joy.”

-Jim Wilson, Principles of War: A Handbook on Strategic Evangelism. (Moscow, ID: Canon Press, 2009), 88.

“In its worst form this kind of preaching degenerates into a kind of ‘Home on the Range’ sermon, ‘where never is heard a discouraging word, and the skies are not cloudy all day’.”

-Roger Wagner, Tongues Aflame: Learning to Preach From the Apostles (Ross-shire, Great Britain: Christian Focus, 2005), 78.

HT: Douglas Wilson

“Well would it be for the Church of Christ, if it possessed more plain-speaking ministers, like John the Baptist, in these latter days. A morbid dislike to strong language–an excessive fear of giving offence–a constant flinching from directness and plain speaking, are, unhappily, too much the characteristics of the modern Christian pulpit. Uncharitable language is no doubt always to be deprecated. But there is no charity in flattering unconverted people, by abstaining from any mention of their vices, or in applying smooth epithets to damnable sins. There are two texts which are too much forgotten by Christian preachers. In one it is written, “Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you.” In the other it is written, “Obviously, I’m not trying to be a people pleaser! No, I am trying to please God. If I were still trying to please people, I would not be Christ’s servant.” (Luke 6:26; Gal. 1:10.)

J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts On the Gospels, Volume 2. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2007), 89.

“Oh what a privilege to be made a minister of the things of the ‘happy God.’  I only hope that He will let me preach to those who have never heard that name Jesus.  What else is worthwhile in this life?  I have heard nothing better.  ’Lord, send me!’”

-Jim Elliot, quoted in Daniel L. Akin, Five Who Changed The World (Wake Forest, NC: Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2008), 94.

“A Christian minister is a person who is “not his own” (1Cor. 6:19); he is the servant of God, and therefore ought to be wholly devoted to him.  By entering on that sacred office he solemnly undertakes to be always engaged as much as possible in the Lord’s work, and not to choose his own pleasure or employment, or pursue the ministry as something that is to subserve his own ends or interest, or as a kind of sideline.  He
engages to go where God pleases, and to do or endure what he sees fit to command or call him to in the exercise of his function.  He virtually bids farewell to friends, pleasures, and comforts, and stands in readiness to endure the greatest sufferings in the work of the Lord, his Master.  It is inconsistent for ministers to please themselves with thoughts of numerous congregations, cordial friends, a civilized country, legal protection, affluence, splendour, or even an income that is sufficient.  The slights and hatred of men, and even pretended friends, gloomy prisons, and tortures, the society of barbarians of uncouth
speech, miserable accommodations in wretched wildernesses, hunger and thirst, nakedness, weariness, and diligence, hard work, and but little worldly encouragement, should rather be the objects of their expectation… I question whether all are justified in staying here, while so many are perishing without means of grace in other lands… On the contrary the commission is a sufficient call to them to venture all, and, like the primitive Christians, go everywhere preaching the gospel.”

-William Carey, quoted in Daniel L. Akin, Five Who Changed The World (Wake Forest, NC: Southeastern     Baptist Theological Seminary, 2008), 15-16.

SBC president and pastor, Johnny Hunt, is scheduled for prostate surgery today.

The surgery for Johnny Hunt for the removal of a cancerous prostate is scheduled at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time on Thursday, Jan. 7, at Northside Hospital in Atlanta, according to a spokesman for the president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Joel Osteen leads prayer for Houston’s First openly lesbian mayor.

Annise Parker, the newly-elected happens-to-be-lesbian mayor of Houston was sworn in Monday and the opening prayer was given by … Rev. Joel Osteen…Osteen has been all over telling folks (Larry King, Whoopi Goldberg) for years that homosexuality is not “God’s best.” I presume he means “God’s best choice” because otherwise I’m lost in the dropped or implied rest of the sentence. But “God’s best” is phrase Osteen never finishes so I’m just guessing.

Leadership Journal looks at the good and bad of virtual/internet church.

The worship leader appears and greets the congregation. A woman turns to her husband and says, “I can’t hear. Would you turn it up?” He obliges, clicking his mouse to increase the volume of his laptop speakers. She gives a nod of thanks and settles in to worship. Welcome to virtual church. Recently a number of churches have made the leap beyond multi-site and satellite campuses. They have launched internet campuses, making every living room, dorm room, or coffeehouse with wi-fi an extension of the church.

If you ever wanted to look inside Mark Dever’s Study, Justin Taylor is providing you the opportunity.