“Many preachers are tempted to identify themselves with the congregation in preaching, rather than with God. This may be the most significant reason for their feeling ill at ease in speaking to their congregation in the second person. Such preachers do not want their people to get the impression that the preacher is holier than …
Why Preachers Avoid the Second Person Plural
“For all its talk about honesty, our culture has refined the art of indirection and euphemism in an attempt not to have to say directly what we really mean . . . When things get tense, you put a little verbal distance between yourself and the congregation. The real problem, however, is that in doing …
Straight Up the Middle
“The boldness of the apostolic preaching can be seen first in its directness, and second in its being challenging or confrontational” (Wagner, Tongues Aflame, p. 71).
How to Understand the Gospel/Romans 20
INTRODUCTION: Thus far in Romans we have learned of our universal plight in Adam, whether or not we are Jews or Gentiles (1-3). We have also learned of the universal salvation for the human race that has been accomplished in the second Adam (4-5), the salvation that was promised for the world through father Abraham. …
Ready for Blowback
“It is important to remember that bold preaching will surely bring opposition from some. You must be prepared for opposition, even persecution. It is part of the cost that must be counted as you seek to become a better preacher . . . You must be prepared to face the criticisms which bold, confrontational preaching …
Humanity 2.0/Romans 19
INTRODUCTION: Â In Adam, with Humanity 1.0, the system crashed. God could have written it off as a wasted project, but in His grace He did not. In Christ, the prototype for the next version was revealed, and subsequent human history has been the period of beta testing for Humanity 2.0. The last day will be …
The Reconciliation/Romans 18
INTRODUCTION: We have a tendency to describe our conversions as one single-faceted event. But in the Scripture, conversion to Christ is multi-faceted, and the different words we use are not synonyms. We will be considering some of those terms in the context of this passage, and it is important to note that they describe different …
Peace With God/Romans 17
INTRODUCTION: Recall that the first three chapters of Romans address the universal problem, the problem of sin. Sin afflicts the Gentiles, as we saw in chapter 1. It afflicts the Jews, as St. Paul shows in chapter 2. Sin has both Jew and Gentile in its grip—that is the argument of chapter 3. In the …
Fully Persuaded/Romans 16
INTRODUCTION: We continue following the apostle’s discussion of Abraham’s faith. We finished our treatment of Romans 4:16, knowing that Abraham was the father of believing Jew and believing Gentile alike. But what do we mean by that word believing? Abraham sets the pattern, and in this passage we learn what his faith was actually like. …
The Day He Left Off Preaching and Took to Meddling
“The preacher who stands before his people and roundly denounces the sins of others, and yet fails to confront his hearers with their own greed, lust, hard-heartedness, and pride, is not bold, no matter how loudly he may thunder. It is relatively easy for a preacher to let fly the salvos of Scripture against the …