“One of the conditions for sucessful gospel preaching is a concern for and desire for the salvation of souls. The prophet said, ‘As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.’ When the Church ‘travails’ — is moved with compassion, as Christ was, over a lost world — then the Church will bring forth …
A Good Ending
We find the story of the rich young ruler in all three synoptics, but the gospel of Mark has some unique details (Mark 10:17). In Matthew and Luke, he just shows up somehow, and asks his question (Matt. 19:16; Luke 18:18). But in Mark, he runs up and he kneels. In all three, when Jesus …
Ichabod
INTRODUCTION:The sign that had been given to Eli about the fall of his house was the fact that his two sons would die on the same day. He heard this news just seconds before he himself died. He had also heard the news that disaster for his house was disaster for all of Israel as …
Grand Particularities
“From the very beginning, immense pressure was exerted to tone down the gospel and make it something else than an exclusive gospel, to take out of it what Dr. Thomas Chalmers liked to describe as ‘the grand particularities’ of the gospel” (Macartney, Preaching Without Notes, pp. 14-15)
Building to the Top
“The Apostle Paul was fond of what we might describe as the acculmulating climax, or the pyramidical sentence. He delighted in placing one great proposition and truth upon another, until from one grand and solid base he reached an exalted and sublime apex” (Clarence Macartney, Preaching Without Notes, p. 12)
Avoiding the Sermonic Weasel
“Passive and subjunctive verbs and prepositional phrases cut the life out of oral speech. No wonder the narratives of the Old Testament preach so easily. They are alive with strong nouns and active verbs” (Lowry, The Homiletical Plot, p. 111)
Gospel, Not Hectoring
“The awfulness of human guilt needs redemption, not a lecture” (Lowry, The Homiletical Plot, p. 86).
The Moment of Resolution
“The crucial moment in the sermon as homiletical bind is not in the ‘asking’ but in the revelation stage when matters are turned upside down, and thereby seen in a new way . . . Most literary plots find their climax in the moment of resolution sometime before the ending” (Lowry, The Homiletical Plot, p. …
The Devil You Say
It is initially curious to some that fundamentalists will say, in their statements of faith, that they believe in a personal devil. At first glance it might appear to be a statement about the inspiration of the Bible — since the devil is such an obvious reality in Scripture, and since the liberals were engaged …
And Inside Out
“The fundamental mistake of the liberal Protestant pulpit of the last forty years is that it presumes that the gospel is continuous with human experience. It would be closer to the truth to say that the gospel is continuous with human experience after the gospel has turned human experience upside down” (Lowry, The Homiletical Plot, …