Introduction: Jesus came to this world to save His people from their sins. And so as we celebrate Advent, we should be on tiptoe in excited anticipation of something good. We want to spend this Advent contemplating the way God wants us to mark and celebrate things. It is not just what we celebrate, but …
Study to Be Approved
“Study, close, persevering study, improves his religious character. An indolent minister is not a spiritually minded man” (Shedd, Homiletics and Pastoral Theology, p. 326).
The Coming Christ Who Came: Advent 1
Introduction: We have often reminded you that ownership of time is inescapable. Either we will mark and define our days with reference to God and His Christ, or we will allow the calendar to be defined by unbelievers. So, for example, either your year will be defined by holidays like Christmas and Easter, or it …
Themes in Proverbs: Truth and Lies
Introduction: Another marked emphasis in the book of Proverbs is the contrast made repeatedly between truth and lies. As Christians, we know that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6), and we also know that the devil is the father of lies (John 8:44). Whenever he lies, he is speaking his …
He Is Not the Congregation
“In this connection, the habit of dialectically discoursing in prayer, should be guarded against . . . It is only when the clergyman forgets God, and addresses the congregation, that the prayer degenerates into a sermon” (Shedd, Homiletics and Pastoral Theology, p. 312).
Themes in Proverbs: Work and Laziness
Introduction: One of the things we must recognize is that work does not exist in the world because of the Fall. Work got a lot more difficult because of our sin, and it labors under a curse, but God gave the cultural mandate to mankind, a mandate which involved an enormous amount of work, before …
Themes in Proverbs: Self-Control
Introduction: When we think of the phrase self-control, the first thing that comes to mind is control of the bodily appetites. We think of resisting temptations to lust or to gluttony. But that is not the only concern of Proverbs when it comes to learning how to control oneself. Many of the passages dealing with …
Thoughts for the Final Stretch
The Telos of Preaching
“Yet, as it is the peculiar function of the preacher, as such, to address an audience, so it is the peculiar function of the audience, as such, to address God, as the result of the preacher’s address to them. Preaching should always end in worship” (Shedd, Homiletics and Pastoral Theology, p. 297).
Reformation Now
Introduction: We are fast approaching the five hundredth anniversary of the glorious Reformation. In just a few months we will find ourselves marking that momentous year, and our Grace Agenda conference in the spring is dedicated to a celebration of it. Now the history of the Church is always tangled, and we can never approach …