Are You Prepared to Hear the Sermon? (Poem)

Here’s a neat poem by R.W. de Haan that reminds us that Biblical sermons are as good as the condition of your heart.  Enjoy!

Sunday the sermon was sluggish,

’Twas hard attention to keep.

The theme was faultily chosen,

It almost put me to sleep.

 

Monday was blue with sheer boredom;

Authority in Teaching

Carl Blothc's famous painting of the sermon on the mount. I like it because I think it depicts the actual scene--Jesus teaching the disciples, but with the crowd not too far back as they might have been approaching Jesus. (carlblotch.com)

What gives authority in Biblical teaching?  How does a learner know if there is authority in Biblical teaching they hear?

I recently have been reading Jesus’ sermon on the mount in Matthew 5 through 7.  Besides the excellent (and sometimes difficult) teaching from Jesus, I have been most struck this time around with the last thoughts of Matthew as he records this sermon.  Matthew 7:28-29:

   “And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes. ”

Jesus taught with authority, something the scribes of that day appeared to lack.  I’ve been thinking of what they really means for my teaching/preaching, and for what that implies for the learning of people who hear Biblical teaching.

It seems to me that understanding the role and function of a scribe would help understand the authority of Jesus because they seem juxtaposed.   The Pillar New Testament Commentary for the Gospel of Mark states:

“Scribe” thus combined the offices of Torah professor, teacher and moralist, and civil lawyer, in that order. Their erudition and prestige reached legendary proportions by the first century, surpassing on occasion that of the high priest. Only scribes (apart from the chief priests and members of the patrician families) could enter the Sanhedrin. Commoners deferred to scribes as they walked through the streets. The first seats in the synagogues were reserved for scribes, and people rose to their feet when they entered a room.

Scribes were highly regarded in this culture, so for Matthew (and Mark (1:22) and Luke (4:32)) to say that Jesus had an authority in teaching that the scribes did not possess is speaking very highly of Jesus’ authority, not necessarily downplaying the role of the scribes.

Scribes had

Reflections on My Worship Sermon Series (& Manuscripts)

I started 2011 preaching through the Gospel of John.  I took a 4-week break these last 4 Sundays to preach a short series of sermons on the topic of worship.  Tomorrow, I’ll be back in John, but I wanted to leave some reflections on the worship series, plus give you the manuscripts if you’re interested.

Some reflections:

• Just because we say we are doing something, even the routine things can lose meaning or understanding over time.  My 4-week series took 2 weeks to define and explain the worship of God, and the last 2 weeks to teach on the two ordinances of the church (baptism and communion).  Worshiping God is something that Christians should be doing every day, and a church should be doing together regularly.  I was hesitant to preach on a topic that is such a normal part of our lives as followers of Jesus.
• Every time you approach the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit can bring new application for your life.  The 2 sermons on the ordinances were of greatest hesitation from me to preach because they are things we’ve done in the church forever.  I thought I would preach and everyone would just nod their head like they already know it all.  But I was shocked how much I and others learned (through their discussions with me).

Warning: My Preaching Causes Strokes!

It’s never happened before.  But two Sundays ago, a young woman had to leave our worship service because she had two strokes during the sermon.  I had no idea this even happened until she shared it with me this past Sunday after our worship service.  I thought it was just a small group bathroom break during the sermon.

So the joke is that my preaching causes strokes, but the real reason for my writing is to proclaim that God is great and still works miracles!

This is what this young woman told me:

As she was leaving the church without really knowing what was going on in her body yet, she felt God telling her she had a stroke and it was above her eye.  When she got to the hospital, she told that the doctors, and sure enough, their tests showed exactly that.  She had some numbness but it went away.  The doctors didn’t believe that she would be able to go to church this past sunday, but she proved them wrong.

The point:  the doctors did not know how to explain the quick recovery from a double stroke to this young woman.  But we know!

The irony:  the Sunday she had the stroke, I was preaching on Jesus’ miracles (specifically the water into wine in John 2)!

This Week’s Focus: New Sermon Planning

I’ll be taking most of my time this week to focus on upcoming sermon planning.  I am preaching through the Gospel of John right now, which will probably take a long time!  So what I’m doing is breaking this John series up a little to allow our church to receive teaching from other areas of Scripture and to break up what could be “redundant” for some people.

These short series will focus on different topics that I’ve felt impressed to preach as they relate to our church.  There is part of every pastor that must be constantly discerning the needs of his people and praying for the Holy Spirit to reveal Scripture that can be taught to help.  This does not mean that preaching through John is not applying to our people–I think it is.  But there is value in mixing it up a little when spending a long time in one book of the Bible.

The shorter upcoming series that will start in May will deal with Biblical worship.  I’ll share more details about it soon as it is ironed out.

I’d appreciate prayer this week as I focus on sermon planning.  Thanks!

Changes in Sermon Plan & Preacher

What is promoted in my series through the gospel of John changed around a little, and also will see a change in the preacher for this Sunday.  The new sermon plan is on our church’s website.

The change in preacher is that Central will not have the opportunity to hear from Mike Dittman, founder of Haven for the Heart ministries.  He would have been a great speaker for the time of the year (Valentines Day is Monday) given that he and his wife have dedicated themselves to ministering to couples.  But maybe he could be rescheduled.  I will be continuing in John this Sunday.

The reason for the change is due to the medical situation of our associational missionary, Pastor Jim Mayes.  Most in the church know that he has been struggling in the hospital the last couple weeks.  Pastor Jim was the one bringing Pastor Dittman into the area for an associational event that was to be held this weekend.  Due to Pastor Jim’s situation, the event was cancelled, and Pastor Dittman will not be coming.

Please continue to pray for Pastor Jim, and plan to worship with us at Central as I preach through the current John series.

Questions About My Preaching

A funny picture done by two ladies in the church for a prayer-walk experience. They have fun personalities!

I’m writing this because of questions I’ve been asked over the last several months about my preaching.  I have put them into a Q&A format in this post, although this was never done as an interview.  These are just real questions people in the church have asked me, so I thought I’d make some answers and info available here.

I hope this is informative to the people of the church, and maybe even helpful to other preachers in their preparation, organization, and delivery.
—————————————————–

Q- What version of the Bible do you preach from?

A- English Standard Version (ESV).

—————————————————-

Q- What version of the Bible do you study from?

A- 7 different ones- ESV, King James, New King James, New Living Translation, New International Version, New American Standard Bible, and Holman Christian Standard Bible.  I like the variety because they will show some word variations in our English language which then indicate you might want to really study original languages in those areas.

—————————————————-

Q-  How do you decide what you are going to preach?

New Series in John Starting this Sunday

Landon Sheely does an awesome job creating my sermon graphics (landonsheely.com)

Here’s the link to our church’s website with the details of the sermon series I’m beginning this Sunday called “The Gospel of John: He Must Increase, I Must Decrease.” I’m pretty excited to get this series going!

I’m only making several months of planned sermon titles available in this series because it is highly likely that they will change as we progress.  There might be some areas that need longer amounts of time dedicated to them that I’ll figure out as I go deeper in planning.  I won’t preach just to preach it, so that’s why we’re taking time to go through the book.  It will take quite a while to go through the whole book, so I’ll periodically take breaks from John to do some “mini-series” on different topics or in different Biblical genres to break up the monotony of being in one book for so long.  The monotony is not because of boredom (or at least shouldn’t be) because the sermons in John are highly practical and should be savory to one who wants to know Christ and His power more!

If you’re around Marion, I hope you’ll join us for worship at 11:00 on Sunday mornings.  If not, but you would still like to hear the sermons, you can get them through our church media page.