Notes on the Mechanics of Spurgeon’s Preaching

02 Monday Jul 2018

Posted by memoirandremains in Charles Spurgeon, Preaching, Uncategorized

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Spurgeon was a master preacher. Today, preachers often quote him when they wish to particularly emphasize a point. This passage, taken nearly at random, illustrates two of his common attributes: (1) Turning abstractions into images; and (2) divide concepts into their parts and examine each in turn. (I could also discuss his expert use of rhetorical figures, but that would be too much for this already long post).

Consider this portion of a paragraph

We know that nothing can occur to us save as it is written in the secret roll of providential predestination; consequently all the trials resulting from circumstances are traceable at once to the great First Cause. Out of the golden gate of God’s ordinance the armies of trial march forth in array. No shower falls unpermitted from the threatening cloud; every drop has its order ere it hastens to the earth. Consider poverty for instance. How many are made to feel its pinching necessities. They shiver in the cold for want of raiment; they are hungry and athirst; they are houseless, friendless, despised. This is a temptation from God, but all this Christ knew—“Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but I, the Son of Man, have not where to lay my head.” When he had fasted forty days and forty nights he was an hungered, and then it was that he was tempted of the devil. Nor does the scant table and the ragged garment alone invite temptation, for all Providences are doors to trial. Even our mercies, like roses, have their thorns. Men may be drowned in seas of prosperity as well as in rivers of affliction. Our mountains are not too high, and our valleys are not too low for temptation to travel. Whither shall we flee from their presence? What wings of wind can carry us? What beams of light can bear us? Everywhere, above and beneath, we are beset and surrounded with dangers. Now, since all these are under the superintendence and direction of the great Lord of Providence, we may look upon them all as temptations which come from him. But in every one of these Christ had his part.

C. H. Spurgeon, “A Tempted Saviour—Our Best Succour,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 9 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1863), 3.

The first proposition is common place in Reformed theology: God is the sovereign over all occurrences. Here is the doctrine from Chapter V of the Westminster Confession of Faith:

I. God, the great Creator of all things, doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by his most wise and holy providence, according to his infallible foreknowledge and the free and immutable counsel of his own will, to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.

II. Although in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first cause, all things come to pass immutably and infallibly, yet by the same providence he ordereth them to fall out, according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently.

Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical Notes: The Evangelical Protestant Creeds, with Translations, vol. 3 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1882), 612. Now look at what Spurgeon does with that concept:

Note: it is not providence as an abstraction; it is providence as an action. Providence is written upon “a secret roll”. Like Borges’ library, the entire history of the world has been written down in a book (although this book contains no false histories).

Spurgeon takes then the second point of the chapter: God is the First Cause of all things. Notice how he takes the abstruse and abstract “First Cause” and draws it with a pencil: The First Cause is simply what God has written down.

Look further: he takes the same idea and repeats it in a new set of images. Now, rather than a book, the decrees come marching through a gate. The troubles you face are an army which God has sent marching in order. Next, it is rain rather than an army; this image he takes from Jesus:

Matthew 5:45 (ESV)
For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Spurgeon takes that rain and merely pays attention to every drop as it falls, “every drop has its order ere it hastens to the earth.

IV. The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God so far manifest themselves in his providence that it extendeth itself even to the first fall, and all other sins of angels and men, and that not by a bare permission, but such as hath joined with it a most wise and powerful bounding, and otherwise ordering and governing of them, in a manifold dispensation, to his own holy ends; yet so as the sinfulness thereof proceedeth only from the creature, and not from God; who, being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin.

V. The most wise, righteous, and gracious God doth oftentimes leave for a season his own children to manifold temptations and the corruption of their own hearts, to chastise them for their former sins, or to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts, that they may be humbled; and to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support unto1 himself, and to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin, and for sundry other just and holy ends.

Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical Notes: The Evangelical Protestant Creeds, with Translations, vol. 3 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1882), 613–614.

Look at what this becomes in Spurgeon:

Consider poverty for instance. How many are made to feel its pinching necessities. They shiver in the cold for want of raiment; they are hungry and athirst; they are houseless, friendless, despised. This is a temptation from God, but all this Christ knew—“Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but I, the Son of Man, have not where to lay my head.” When he had fasted forty days and forty nights he was an hungered, and then it was that he was tempted of the devil.

He does not slavishly follow the original; but he carries out an element of it. He turns “manifold temptations” into “pinching necessities”. We could show how the other ideas in the Confession are found in other parts of this sermon.

Another aspect to note comes in the division: he takes the concept of trial/temptation and looks at it from parts. A trial/temptation can from poverty. Well what is poverty — a lack of money. What is the opposite? Wealth. Can wealth brings its own temptations? Yes. Have we ever met a wealthy sinner? What did abundance due to Solomon?

Look at how Spurgeon makes this point:

Even our mercies, like roses, have their thorns. Men may be drowned in seas of prosperity as well as in rivers of affliction. Our mountains are not too high, and our valleys are not too low for temptation to travel. Whither shall we flee from their presence? What wings of wind can carry us? What beams of light can bear us? Everywhere, above and beneath, we are beset and surrounded with dangers.

He uses the commonplace of roses bearing thorns. The image works because he does not belabor it. He alters, slightly, the commonplace and uses it as an intellectual anchor. Yes, good things may come with complications.

He then switches the image immediately to death by water: “Men may be drowned in seas of prosperity as well as in rivers of affliction.” Then a new image, “Our mountains are not too high, and our valleys are not too low for temptation to travel.” We are in constant danger of temptation: the world is rife with its danger.

He then takes over an image from Psalm 139:

Psalm 139:7–10 (ESV)

7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.

Which he delivers as “Whither shall we flee from their presence? What wings of wind can carry us? What beams of light can bear us?” Note also that this is a “legitimate” use of the original in that it is God who sends the trials, who is the First Cause.

Now to the division into parts. This is has already been noted: poverty comes paired with wealth: temptation and trial can come from any direction

The Kind of Preaching People Want

13 Sunday May 2018

Posted by memoirandremains in Culture, Jonathan Edwards, Micah, Preaching, Uncategorized

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Jonathan Edwards, Micah, The Kind of Preaching People Want

Published under the title, The Salvation of Souls, Richard A. Bailey and Gregory A. Wills, edited nine sermons of Jonathan Edwards on Christian ministry. One of the sermons entitled, “The Kind of Preaching People Want” considers the text:

Micah 2:11 (ESV)

¹¹ If a man should go about and utter wind and lies,

saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,”

he would be the preacher for this people!

From this text, Edwards notes that this is the sort of preaching which will attract people (I one time heard John MacArthur say, you can gather a lot goats in one place and that doesn’t make them sheep). He posits this doctrine:

If the business of ministers was to further the gratification of men’s lusts, they would be much better received by many than they are now.

He then gives a series of examples of how such preaching would sound. And in reading this, it often seems as if Edwards was looking into the “church” of the country which was coming into being while he lived (he died prior to the Revolution):

If ministers were sent to tell people that they might gratify their lusts without danger; if they were sent to them that it was lawful for them to gratify their lusts …..

He then proceeds to set out a series of desires: drunkenness, sexual immorality, abusive business dealings, revenge. Or rather than openly claim such things were no sins — they were of little importance.

Or perhaps rather than deny that sin would merit hell; what if the minister presented:

Christ only in one of his offices and not in others; if they were to preach Christ only in his priestly office and as a savior from the punishment of sin, and not also in his kingly office as a savior from the power and dominion of sin, and that being a King and a Lord to rule in us and over us, they would by many be much better received than they are now.

Edwards then proceeds through other potential faults in a minister — all designed to lead men to believe that Christ saved us to indulge in sin and be rewarded with a future of sinful pleasures. But these first two fault seems particularly to mark the broader so-called “evangelical” ministry in North America: preachers who lessen the severity of sin; and who, in the name of “grace” and “love” speak as if Christ would overlook — or even delight in sin.

Think of the bitter, often even slanderous speech, which marks social media. Or the envy and covetousness of our culture — not to mention intoxication and sexual immorality. Congregations are falling over themselves to accommodate the sexual revolution (as Al Mohler terms it) in the name of love. A well-known supposed evangelical writes a book which advocates a universal salvation in the name of “love”.

Edwards’ warning, which must have sounded bizarre to even the unbelievers in his congregation (remember, everyone went to church in Edwards’ day), seems to have been taken up as a how-to by the public Christian church.

What then must we do with this observation? Edwards first provides questions of self-examination. How do you receive true preaching of the Scripture? When the Word is rightly proclaimed, do you listen attentively? When your sin is reproved, do you receive and repent — or do you ignore it, or chafe?

What do you do if a preacher speaks smooth words which encourage your sins? Or if it is not a preacher, what if a friend or neighbor speaks in a way that encourages your lusts? Do you receive it eagerly? Do you find entertainment from “an impure story or a lascivious song?”

There is then reproof:

What horrid contempt you cast on God and Christ and heaven, in that you should prefer the gratification of your vile lusts before them, that you would be more pleased and entertained and give better attention to hear that by which your lusts might be gratified than that by which you may obtain an interest in Christ, in his precious blood and glorious benefits, and may have God for your portion; that to have all the glories and perfections of God and a Redeemer set before you is not so pleasing and entertaining to you as to hear of the objects of a carnal appetite; that worldly profit or sensual pleasures or the gratifications of your envy revenge is better to you than heaven.

Then as a final matter, Edwards ends with what it is to be a preacher who rightly brings the Word:

But how grievous may it be well be, when a minster does his utmost to see a congregation seeming to be regardless of what he says, and many of them sleeping a great part of the time, and other plainly manifesting a careless, regardless spirit. With what a complaint may such ministers that have been so treated rise up on the day of judgment before their Master that sent them and set them to work, declaring what pains they took and how they labored to their utmost to speak so as to influence and affect their minds and yet how regardless they were of the message they delivered.

This sermon at length and the entire book is well worth your time. The book is well edited. Each sermon is prefaced by an introduction that sets the time and place. The sermons are marked with notes which help explain the text. Very highly recommended.

Soren Kierkegaard, The Mirror of the Word Part One

23 Monday Apr 2018

Posted by memoirandremains in Faith, Faith, James, Kierkegaard, Kierkegaard, Preaching, Uncategorized

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Faith Alone, Faith and Works, James 1, James 1:22, Kierkegaard, Mirror of the Word, Preaching

How to Derive True Benediction from Beholding Oneself in the Mirror of the Word

James 1:22 to the End

Fifth Sunday After Easter

Introduction

Kierkegaard prefaces his discourse with a note about the necessary “eloquence” of Christian preaching: it must be an eloquence of word and action:

He who is to preach ought to live in the thoughts and conceptions of Christianity; this should be his daily life — if such is the case, then (as Christianity teaches) thou shalt have eloquence enough, and just what is needed, when thou dost speak straightforwardly without special preparation. On the other hand, it is a false eloquence, if without being concerned with these thoughts or living in them, one sits down from time to time to make a collection of such thoughts, culling them perhaps from the field of literature, and working them up together into a well-developed discourse, which then is learned perfectly by rote and is admirably delivered, both with respect to elocution and with respect to movement of arms. No, just as in a well-appointed house one is not obligated to go downstairs to fetch water, but by pressure already has it on the upper floors merely by turning the tap, so too is with real the Christian orator, who, just because Christianity is his life, has eloquence, and precisely the right eloquence, close at ham, immediately present with him ….

For the sermon ought not to establish an invidious distinction between the talented and the untalented, it ought rather in the unity of the Holy Ghost fix attention exclusively upon the requirement that actions must correspond to words.

This idea of correspondence between actions and words is worked in the subsequent discourse on the correspondence between faith and action. There must be an integrity between what is said, and what is done.

The Sermon

Kiekegaard preaches on the following text:

James 1:22–27 (ESV)

²²But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. ²³For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. ²⁴For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. ²⁵But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

²⁶If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. ²⁷Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Kierkegaard begins his consideration of these words with the apparent contradiction of Martin Luther: we are saved by faith alone. He then notes the nature of human depravity when it comes to works:

yet every man has a disposition either to want to have merit from works when they are to be done; or, when faith and grace are to be stressed, to want to be as far as possible liberated entirely from works.

Luther sought to work around that dual tendency:

Luther wanted to take away the meritoriousness from works and apply it in a somewhat different place, namely to witnessing for truth. Worldliness, which understood Luther radically, did away entirely with meritoriousness — and with works along with it.

Luther also notes that “faith is a perturbing thing”. Well, then if faith is a perturbing thing, “To what effect has faith, which thou sayest thou hast, perturbed thee?”

That is the trouble. And what sort of disquiet should come from faith? The disquiet of faith will seek to change things to conform to the faith — whether it is the religious order or a disquiet of “inward order.” “A true love-affair is a disquieting thing, but it does not occur to the lover to want to change the established order.”

Kierkegaard mentioning Luther’s trouble with James suggests that perhaps Luther did not realize how easily one could twist “faith alone” to mean faith apart from effect upon one. “That does not apply to the Lutheran doctrine, but it applies to me: I have reason to know that I am not an upright soul, but a crafty fellow.”

Since I am a crafty fellow, I think to think more carefully about what is meant by this “faith alone”. “So it doubtless would be well to examine a little more carefully the subordinate clauses (works, existence, witnessing and suffering for the truth, works of love, & c.), the subordinating clauses of Lutheranism.”

It is that examination of what faith must do that occupies the discourse proper.

The Savior Who Bears Shame

17 Tuesday Apr 2018

Posted by memoirandremains in Hosea, Preaching, Sermons, Uncategorized

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Hosea, Preaching, Sermon

(This is the introduction to a sermon on Hosea 1-2)

The Savior Who Bears Shame

Hosea 1:2 (NASB95)

2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry; for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord.”

The story of Hosea is a story of the unyielding, unchanging grace and love of God. It is the story of love which undergirds the course of history. The love and grace of God form the architecture of the movement of time. The rebellion of Adam and failure of Israel could not unmake the love of God. “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more”. Rom. 5:20.

God’s grace brings life from death, for

1 Corinthians 1:27–29 (NASB95)

27 … God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,

28 and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,

29 so that no man may boast before God.

This love runs deep in the channels of time; it forms the steel frame of all the universe; it bears such strength that not even death, not even adultery can break the bond of God’s love. It is the love of a God which begins before God said, “Let there be light.” As Paul tells Titus, God promised eternal life, “long ages ago.” It is a love which stretch into all eternity, as Christ has promised, “Where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:3. It a transforming love which takes the one who is unlovely, and remakes him; it is love which presents the bride, “holy and blameless”. Eph. 5:27

It is a love that will overcome all obstacles, so that not even the foulest rebellion will thwart his love:

For love is as strong as death

Jealousy is as severe as Sheol

It’s flashes are flashes of fire

The very fame of the Lord

Many waters cannot quench love

Nor will rivers overflow it

If a man were to give all the riches of his house for love

It would be utterly despised.

Song 8:6-7

But the story of God’s love in Hosea does not begin with the beauty of romance; with the hope and expectation of young love. The story begins with rank adultery, with spite, with unloved children, with war and chaos lurking at the horizon.

The book begins with this gunshot to the chest. We know nothing Hosea before — and little after — this command comes from the Lord:

Go take for yourself a wife of harlotry

Or as the King James aptly puts it

take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms

There is no preparation told us for this command. God comes and makes this command — and the personal commands of God cannot be avoided — a shocking command. Image come has come to you and says, You, marry that whore. Think of the confusion, the revulsion, the pain.

The command is almost inexplicable on its face. A variety of commentators have sought many explanations — and there are several explanations — but none of them can really get around the point of the disgust.

John Calvin, for instance, cannot believe that God would give such a command to the prophet. He draws out the trouble here: the wife to be is not “without blame in holiness before our God and Father”. She is no one’s “hope or joy or crown of exultation.” As Calvin writes, this woman

who has exposed herself to all, to gratify the wish of all, who has prostituted herself, not once or twice, nor to a few men, but to all.

This woman is not beguiling, not attractive. She is ruined with lust. Calvin cannot believe that God would bring such shame upon His prophet

for how could he expect to be received after having brought upon himself such disgrace.

Keep that question in mind, for that shame and disgrace are at the heart of the love of God. But for now just see this: God commands Hosea to marry a whore, because God himself is married to whore:

When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry;

Having given the command, God gives the reason:

for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord.”

The shame the Lord calls the prophet to bear is the shame which the Lord, himself, bears.

How Much of What We Hear in Church is “Human Wisdom”

28 Wednesday Mar 2018

Posted by memoirandremains in Biblical Counseling, Preaching, Uncategorized

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Biblical Counseling, Preaching

Where do we get our opinions?

In contrast Paul asked, “Where is the wise man?” (1:20). They were not hard to find in Paul’s day. But by and large they were not a part of the Christian movement. Paul could legitimately ask why the Corinthians valued secular wisdom so much when the “wisest” individuals by those standards could not see the truth of Christianity. If such non-Christians were really the true measure of wisdom, then why were they not Christians?
We should be careful not to use verses like these as an excuse for ignorance. In the past some have argued these as an anti-educational agenda. We should remember how much worldly wisdom and secular training Paul himself brought to the table; he was no dullard. The very fact that he could read put him among the most educated of his day. Indeed, Acts 17:28 shows us Paul quoting secular philosophy, and he cites a Greek poet in 1 Cor. 15:33. Surely God can use our minds as well as our hearts and emotions.

But we should also remember that human “wisdom” has a way of coming and going. How many Stoic or Epicurean philosophers have you met recently? How many Platonists or Peripatetics? Belonging to groups like these was like having a PhD from Harvard or Yale today. But so many of the things they taught now seem ridiculous to us, even if some of their errors are still around today in groups from our own time. It is not that we cannot find gems of truth in the thinking of these ancient groups, but their schools have closed. Christianity has survived.

Given the incredible diversity of Christian groups, we must also suspect that a great deal of the “wisdom” we hear even in the church must be all too human. Just because a minister says something from a pulpit and mentions a few words from the Bible does not mean that he or she truly has the mind of God. If the Spirit of God inhabits the body of Christ, the church, then spiritual wisdom is more accurately heard the more we are in contact with the rest of God’s people.

Kenneth Schenck, 1 & 2 Corinthians: A Commentary for Bible Students (Indianapolis, IN: Wesleyan Publishing House, 2006), 47.

How Narratives Work, Part 4

03 Sunday Dec 2017

Posted by memoirandremains in Acts, Preaching, Uncategorized

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Acts 4, irony, Narrative

Now that one has understood the plot line (and with biblical narratives, the sensitivity to the various levels of plots: the individual stories are part of larger narratives), and has undertaken to understand the look and feel of the story from the inside; there is a need to learn why the story is being told: what is the story about?

There are a few ways to begin to understand the story. Consider what the characters do and say? Does the narrator give explicit comment (and is the narrator “reliable”)? There is a “good guy” and a “bad guy” in the story. If the “good guy” wins or loses, why is that? Look for irony: are the character’s expectations upset? Why did the narrator tell me this story? To entertain me? To change me?

When we read the Biblical narratives, there is always a “strangeness” to the story: we must be changed.

In the narrative of Acts 4 here are some observations:

In verses 13, Peter and John are arrested for preaching: but the arrest was not successful in stopping the power of the proclamation:

But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.Acts 4:4 (ESV)

The power lay in the Word, not in Peter and John. Later in Acts 5:38-39, Gamaliel puts his finger on the issue:

³⁸So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; ³⁹but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!” So they took his advice,Acts 5:38–39 (ESV)

(Continued in the next post).

How Narratives Work, Part III

29 Wednesday Nov 2017

Posted by memoirandremains in Preaching, Uncategorized

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Acts, Narrative, Preaching

Having fully worked through the plot points, it is necessary next to consider the details. The biblical narratives are extremely spare. Consider for example, Acts 4:7a, “And when they had set them in their midst”. The scene is told with exceeding brevity. Peter and John had been “put in custody” the night before.

Someone gave an order to fetch the men from some sort of jail. There were some number of guards who came to Peter and John, released them from their custody and transported them to some other room where there were some number of men.

How gave the order? How was it conveyed? What did the room look like where Peter and John were imprisoned? Was it cold or hot? Were then in chains, behind bars? How many steps was it from the prison to the room for meeting? What did the room look like? How many men were in the room?

What did it feel like when Peter and John stood in the middle of the room? There may have been a change in Peter, because the text says, “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 4:8).

When preaching or teaching, it is essential to unpack, or fill in the details. One primary purpose of narratives is not merely convey some proposition, but to convey understanding in a manner which is affecting. We watch movies and read stories because of how the story makes us feel (and think).

Take the hearers into the prison room; listen for the turn of the lock. Speak with the guard. Walk along the hallways into the room before the leaders of your people. This will require some research. Fortunately, there many good resources for biblical events. You do not need to use slides during your sermon, but you can describe the scene.

This is where reading will help. The way to learn to use words is to read masters using words. Here is the first paragraph of A Farewell to Arms:

In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains. In the bed of the river there were pebbles and boulders, dry and white in the sun, and the water was clear and swiftly moving and blue in the channels. Troops went by the house and down the road and the dust they raised powdered the leaves of the trees. The trunks of the trees too were dusty and the leaves fell early that year and we saw the troops marching along the road and the dust rising and leaves, stirred by the breeze, falling and the soldiers marching and afterward the road bare and white except for the leaves.

He makes you look at the scene. Learn to write and speak in such a way that you help others look at the scene. If you are a preacher, learning to use words well is your job. Yo have no excuse for not working to learn this skill. By the way, if you preach in such a way as to make a scene like Peter and John before the rulers boring you are not conveying truth — you are actually distorting the “meaning” of the text.

Now in doing this, be careful not to make up details. Consider this detail from a medieval Bible showing David slaying Goliath:

Old Testament miniatures, MS M.638, fol. 28v, Samuel

Without question, no one was dressed like that in the original event. But, when we do not have the details, it is easy for us to fill a picture which fits our expectations. Caution is necessary here.

However, we can use analogies to circumstances we and the hearers do know. For instance, none of know what it would be like to be brought before the rulers, elders and scribes and High Priest. But what if the FBI had gathered you and then dropped you before a meeting of the President and the Director of the CIA?

In order for the hearer to understand this story, the hearer/reader must experience a palpable fear. Peter’s courage makes no sense without Peter’s history of fear and without the real danger faced by Peter and John. Remember, these same men had just sent Jesus off to be murdered! If they could dispose of Jesus, what will they do to Peter and John?

How Narratives Work, Part 2

11 Saturday Nov 2017

Posted by memoirandremains in Preaching, Uncategorized

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Holy Spirit, Narrative, Preaching, Teaching

After noting the plot points in the section under consideration, we should note how this particular section of Acts 4 fits into the larger narratives. First, this scene of Peter and John before the counsel fits into a larger section running from Acts 3:1 and ending with 4:35.

The scene in chapter 3 begins with Peter and John coming to the temple to pray. They meet a lame beggar at the Beautiful Gate. The beggar hopes to receive alms. Peter tells the man what he does not have (“silver and gold”) but he also makes an offer:

But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”

Acts 3:6 (ESV). If the close of the extended is 4:35, there is an interesting parallel concerning wealth, because 4:32-35 concerns the distribution of wealth throughout the church. If the section ends with 4:31, it closes with prayer. Acts 3 begins with the apostles going to prayer and having no wealth.

The man having been healed in the name of Jesus, a crowd gathers. Peter preaches a Gospel sermon “proved” by the power of Jesus in healing this man and the power of God in raising Jesus:

¹⁵and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. ¹⁶And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.

Acts 3:15–16 (ESV).

Chapter 4 then begins with the power of the state in arresting and trying Peter and John. Luke parenthetically points to the power of the Word of God:

But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.

Acts 4:4 (ESV). The apostles are interrogated concerning the source of the miracle: “By what power or in what name”? Whose authority is at play here?

Peter responds with a quotation from Psalm 118, that Jesus is the cornerstone.

There is then the famous response of Peter concerning God’s authority versus the authority of the state:

¹⁹But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, ²⁰for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

Acts 4:19–20 (ESV). Having been threatened by the powers that be, Peter and John return to the church.

The church prays: first, a praise to God for his sovereignty even persecution: Jesus was killed by wicked me which was “whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place” (Acts 4:27). They then pray for boldness to stand against the threats and persecution.

This section fits within the larger narrative of the primitive church’s growth and Peter’s preaching.

Finally, there is the master narrative set forth in the prologue: Luke was the “beginning” of what Jesus did and taught (Acts 1:2); and Jesus’ programmatic statement for Acts:

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Acts 1:8. Jesus will continue to work and teach, but it will be through the power of the Holy Spirit and it will be through the witness of these disciples. The events of Acts 3 & 4 are further examples of how Jesus healed a man; how the disciples were witnesses to Jesus; and how this was done through the work of the Spirit (Acts 4:8, “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit’).

In doing this, we are still at the observation stage of our work. We note the major plot points of a section. We then note the general themes of the section and how these look compared to the larger narrative(s).

How Narratives Work Part 1

04 Saturday Nov 2017

Posted by memoirandremains in Acts, Literature, Preaching, Uncategorized

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Acts, Acts 4, christology, Narra, Preaching, Teaching

The language of Psalm 39, “O LORD make me know my end, and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!” Has struck me (“I am mute; I do not open my mouth”). I know the meaning and can see the psychological and emotional relationship between fleeting days and anger — but this time through I have realized there is something much more profound there which I must sound. So while I work through that, here is another matter.

Bible teachers in my world seem to find Paul easiest to teach: his letters have structures which track in the way we are taught in school: here is a point, some rationale, implication. The elements are laid out as an argument. Diagram the sentence, make the main verb the principle point and you have a sermon outline.

But narrative suffers. I have actually heard men with significant seminary training make silly statements about hierarchies of genre, with narrative existing solely for illustration of the “clearer” letters. I posit, that such thinking is primarily a reflection of an inadequate education, not a defect of the text.

The Bible is primarily poem and narrative. These texts are just as clear and necessary as Paul’s letters (if you don’t believe me, read Paul’s letters: he seems to find the letters and poems quite useful resources!). However, due to the inadequate education in literature, most pastors (and other teachers) simply don’t know how to handle such things.

My education is first in literature and the law (which is nothing but stories, reading stories, writing stories, telling stories: judges and juries do not believe facts, they believe stories; if I were to ask about you, you would tell me a story).

Here are some tips which I hope may help others in handling a story. I am going to take Acts 4, because I will be teaching through the text. So here are some steps.

The first step in understanding and working with a narrative section is merely to work through the plot points

ACTS 4:1-37

THERE ARE TWO MAIN SECTIONS: PETER & JOHN BEFORE THE COUNCIL AND THEIR RETURN TO THE CHURCH

I. Peter and John Before the Council

A. The Arrest

Setting

And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, ²greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

The Arrest

³And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening.

What happened from preaching

⁴But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.

B. Before the Council

The setting

⁵On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, ⁶with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family.

The question/charge

⁷And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?”

Peter’s Response

a. The Spirit’s Help

⁸Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them,

Initial X-ref: You will receive power. Acts 1:8 and be my witnesses (thus, how this section fits into the master narrative of Acts); and this

Luke 21:12–15 (ESV)

¹²But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. ¹³This will be your opportunity to bear witness. ¹⁴Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, ¹⁵for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. )

b. The Power of Jesus

i. Jesus Healed

“Rulers of the people and elders, ⁹if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, ¹⁰let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,

c. You rejected Jesus, but God has glorified him (as God promised he would)

whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. ¹¹This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you,

the builders, which has become the cornerstone. ¹²And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Come back to this latter: Think about what an astounding thing Peter has just said: this man who you saw die a few days ago is not only alive but he actually has power over disease and if I ask him, he will heal people. As Christians, we easily move from Jesus to God (which is a legitimate move, but too easily passes over the fact to all of these people Jesus is a man. To the rulers, he is only a man. This story makes no sense if you miss that point.)

i. You rejected Jesus, but God has glorified him.

Peter quotes Psalm 118.22. This is a Psalm about persecution and deliverance by God. Peter himself will use this same verse in his first letter:

1 Peter 2:4–10 (ESV)

⁴As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, ⁵you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶For it stands in Scripture:

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,

a cornerstone chosen and precious,

and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

⁷So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,

“The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone,”

⁸and

“A stone of stumbling,

and a rock of offense.”

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

⁹But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. ¹⁰Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Jesus is the living corner stone of the church which is being built.

d. The Council’s Deliberation

i. How do they know these things?/They cannot answer them (as Jesus promised)

¹³Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. ¹⁴But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition.

Just like Jesus, the rulers cannot understand where this wisdom and power from. However, they are right to understand that it was because they had been with Jesus

Spurgeon in Morning and Evening quotes this verse as a model for Christians (this would make a good application):

Morning, February 11 Go To Evening Reading

“And they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.”

—Acts 4:13

A Christian should be a striking likeness of Jesus Christ. You have read lives of Christ, beautifully and eloquently written, but the best life of Christ is his living biography, written out in the words and actions of his people. If we were what we profess to be, and what we should be, we should be pictures of Christ; yea, such striking likenesses of him, that the world would not have to hold us up by the hour together, and say, “Well, it seems somewhat of a likeness;” but they would, when they once beheld us, exclaim, “He has been with Jesus; he has been taught of him; he is like him; he has caught the very idea of the holy Man of Nazareth, and he works it out in his life and every-day actions.” A Christian should be like Christ in his boldness. Never blush to own your religion; your profession will never disgrace you: take care you never disgrace that.

H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening: Daily Readings (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1896).

ii. Peter and John are sent out: What should we do?

¹⁵But when they had commanded them to leave the council, they conferred with one another, ¹⁶saying, “What shall we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. ¹⁷But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.”

iii. Peter’s response: we must obey God rather than men

¹⁸So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. ¹⁹But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, ²⁰for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

This is a key verse in considering what must be done when there is a conflict between living as a faithful Christian and some authority which forbids it. See Daniel 1. We must obey God even if it results in punishment

iv. Released with a threat

²¹And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people, for all were praising God for what had happened. ²²For the man on whom this sign of healing was performed was more than forty years old.

William Taylor: An Earnest Preacher

16 Friday Jun 2017

Posted by memoirandremains in Preaching, Uncategorized

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Earnestness, Preaching, The Ministry of the Word, William Taylor

William Taylor in his 1876 work The Ministry of the Word lists three qualities of the preacher of an effective sermon, earnestness, courage & tenderness.

Earnestness springs from two sources: a personal conviction of the truth proclaimed and the certainty that those hearing need to know this truth.

But before he gets into earnestness and its causes, Taylor begins by stating what earnestness is not:

We must not confound it with mere vehemence of manner

We must not confound it with mere vehemence of manner. Rant is not intensity, neither is noise earnestness. Too often the ” sound and fury” signifying nothing;” and sometimes as I have been compelled to listen to preachers of the noisy school, I have thought that they had taken their cue from Quince in his description of the lion’s part, when he says, “You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.”‘- That is, and always must be, ridiculous …

I have often seen men who thought that play acting with lots of noise, as if pretending to enthusiasm were a good substitute for being earnest.

Taylor explains that one can never be earnest unless one is first convinced of the truth of the matter:

If we have not made up our minds upon a subject, we cannot kindle into enthusiasm over its treatment ; and he who has not yet brought the ends of his thoughts together on any matter, should keep that matter out of the pulpit until he has. It is the irrepressible in a man that makes him earnest. If he can keep anything in, then let him keep it, for such a thing, generally speaking, is not worth letting out, and his utterance of it will have no force.

Unfortunately, too often, the preacher goes into the pulpit without conviction, and so he merely talks:

The preacher fills up the time with talk, because he must say something. He does not go into the sacred desk under the absorbing impulse of the feeling that he has something which he must say. So he is aimless and uninteresting, and fails to impress others because he is unimpressed himself. It cannot be too constantly remembered by you, that your usefulness to others must depend, next to the influence of God’s Spirit, upon the intensity of your own convictions. There is nothing so contagious as conviction.

As Taylor says, “If, therefore, you have no positive convictions, keep out of the pulpit until you get them.”

Now, the preacher must not only be earnest in his personal conviction of the truth, he must earnestly believe that others must hear this truth. The preacher must be convicted of the truth and of the importance of that truth:

But another element of earnestness is a vivid realization of the position of our hearers. Let a man have the firm belief that he is dealing with immortal souls ; that unless these souls embrace the Lord Jesus Christ and live in obedience to His laws, they must perish everlastingly ; and that he is set to persuade them to choose that ”’ good part which cannot be taken away ” from them, and he cannot help being earnest in his appeals to them.

And again:

There is no mistaking the earnestness of him who runs from the burning dwelling to cry ” Fire! fire!” He sees the evil; he knows that if means be not taken promptly to extinguish the flames the house must be destroyed ; and so he does not take it leisurely, but rushes on along the nearest way to the engine-house. And it is the same in the pulpit.

In conclusion:

Here, then, are the twin sources of that earnestness of which so much is said, namely, intellectual conviction of the truth of those things which we proclaim; and loving realization of the fact that our hearers need to have these things said to them in order to be saved from the evils of time and the perdition of eternity. Give us these in all the occupants of all our pulpits, and the world will be constrained to listen to them. There is no royal road to earnestness; neither can it be successfully counterfeited by any histrionic art. We can gain it only through personal conviction and pervasive love ; but, when we do gain it, we do not so much possess it as it possesses us, and carries us out of ourselves to achievements which are as astonishing to ourselves as they are irresistible to those whom we address.

The discussion of earnestness is found in Lecture VI, pp. 131-138.