“The historical context concerns the circumstances or situation that prompted the text . . . The literary context, on the other hand, is simply the text around your text” (Helm, Expositional Preaching, p. 45).
Whose Ox Is Being Sued
Paul famously prohibits Christians from going to court against one another, except that he doesn’t. What he prohibits is taking disputes between Christians before unbelievers. Here is the text: “Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? Do ye not know that the …
Itself a Fine Example of Contextualization
“The trouble is that too many of us push exegesis back in our preparation, and we clothe the message in a short red dress of contextualization by focusing on culture and our ability to connect with it. It’s like we want to spin her out away from us in exciting circles, showing off her long …
Surveying the Text/Amos
Introduction: Now let us consider the prophecy of Amos. Apart from what is revealed in the course of his writing here, we know nothing about the man. Among the minor prophets, he occupies the vanguard in this period of Israel’s history, even though he is placed third in the canonical order. He is very much …
Real Originality
“Originality in man, then, is not the power of making a communication of truth but of apprehending one” (Shedd, p. 10).
Glorious Inequality
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) The Basket Case Chronicles #189 “There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and …
Freshness and Force
“The sacred orator is quickened by the analytic study of the sacred volume into a freedom, freshness, and force, that are utterly beyond his reach without it” (Shedd, p. 7).
The Basic Task
“In the presence of both nature and revelation, men, as Lord Bacon phrases it, is a minister and interpreter, and not a creator and lord” (Shedd, Homiletics and Pastoral Theology, p. 5).
Surveying the Text: Joel
Introduction: The occasion of this prophecy was a swarm of locusts that devastated the land of Judah. That was a true disaster that was a portent of another follow-up disaster, an invading Gentile army. Joel calls upon the people of God to repent, and promises them true restoration if they do so. Part of his …
On Christian Disobedience #2
Introduction: With regard to our duties of civil obedience and submission, we have to consider the express teaching of the Bible. But we must do this in context, which means we have to set a contextual stage. This context is important in two respects—the broader context of doctrine and theology, and the second is the …