INTRODUCTION:Saul functions in this story as the last of Israel’s judges. He has been anointed as a king, and acclaimed as one, but he has not yet been made a king. This fact alone means that at the beginning of his reign, there is faithfulness to the theocratic ideal. And, at the very beginning of …
Failure to Communicate
“The anti-authority mood makes people unwilling to listen, addiction of television makes them unable to do so, and the contemporary atmosphere of doubt makes many preachers both unwilling and unable to speak. Thus there is paralysis at both ends, in the speaking and in the hearing. A dumb preacher with a deaf congregation presents a …
An Important Point of Grammar
“Too many sermons are written ‘in the imperative mode’, whereas the religion of the Bible ‘is written largely in the revealing language of the indicative mode’ . . . The power of the religion of the Bible is to be found in its affirmations” (Stott, Between Two Worlds, p. 57)
Pulpit Words
“Common usage of pulpit words reflects this distortion. ‘To preach’ has come to mean ‘to give advice in an offensive, tedious or obtrusive manner’, while to be ‘sermonic’ is to inflict on someone a patronizing harangue” (Stott, Between Two Worlds, p. 52).
Because the Old Sermons Weren’t Pink Wine Coolers
“Even ‘sermon-tasting’, a reprehensible kind of ecclesiastical pub-crawling, which involved erratic churchgoing merely with a view to sampling and subsequently comparing the eminent preachers of the day, has gone out of vogue” (John Stott, Between Two Worlds, p. 50).
The Basic Recovery
“It stands to reason that every recovery of confidence in the Word of God, and so in a living God who spoke and speaks, however this truth may be defined, is bound to result in a recovery of preaching. This must be why so many great preachers have belonged to the reformed tradition” (Stott, Between …
Another Heart, A New Heart
INTRODUCTION:Saul is given favor by God, even though the circumstances are unfavorable indeed. Saul is given favor by Samuel, even though Samuel knows that trouble lies ahead. This chapter contains a number of references that will help us understand the rest of the story rightly. THE TEXT:“Then Samuel took a vial of oil, and poured …
Preaching Reality
“Preaching is indispensible to Christianity. Without preaching a necessary part of its authenticity has been lost. For Christianity is, in its very essence, a religion of the Word of God” (Stott, Between Two Worlds, p. 15)
A Professional, In Other Words
“The current tendency is to secularize the ministry, both its message and its office, as if the work of the minister were just the same as that of a teacher, a physician, a scientist, or an artist, only with a slightly different accent. This has done the church no good” (Macartney, Preaching Without Notes, p. …
Pentecostal Authority
INTRODUCTION: The Jewish festival of Pentecost is now famously connected to the sign gifts that were poured out on this day—gifts of tongues, and prophecy, and the like. We get the denominational name of Pentecostal from this day, and so one of the things we should learn as we mark this day is how that …