More conversations with a friend, this time on preaching.
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In addition to Tullian’s stuff, check this one out
http://www.newreformationpress.com/blog/nrp-freebies/the-gospel-for-those-broken-by-the-church/
Give it a read and listen ( it’s at the bottom ) and the sequel linked “Christianity in Five Verses”.
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Some preachers use the Bible as a tool to help you get better at x y or z. Some use it as a tool to beat you up and change your behavior. While others have an agenda like talk about today’s social and political problems, and use Jesus and the Bible to support their own ideas.
Some simply preach the text as-is and leave it up to the Holy Spirit to do the work. Lutherans ( usually ) have a Law and Gospel understanding of the Scriptures along with a Christo-centric versus a Theo-centric ( Reformed ) view which influences their preaching. Some are a mix of these two.
Of all the crap sermons being preached, if you are able to sit under expository and/or Law+Gospel sermons, you are blessed. But like I said previous, I think the movement towards “better” preaching has to continue to Gospel-centered preaching or it’s incomplete.
I will say this last sermon was better than the previous. Yes, the Gospel may have been *in there*, but it was more of an *out there* thing to my ears…it’s for someone else, but not for me. I still don’t feel like I “heard the Gospel” or if it was there, I didn’t hear it *for me*, like “This is what God has done for you; he has let his Son be made flesh for you, has let him be put to death for your sake.”
If Law+Gospel is not his thing, then he wouldn’t do it, so is it fair of me ( more importantly you ) to expect? That was a slightly rhetorical question. I think you have to ask yourself the question what does the Bible teach, what is its purpose?
Most Reformed preachers probably fit this model http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/what-i-mean-by-preaching
Nothing about Law or Gospel or Christ really. Just faithfully teach what is going on in the text, period. Might be more of Law, or sin or grace, or Gospel at times. So I think he did good at an expository type preaching and that is opening up the text and explaining it. In other words, it fits with his style, his training, etc. But it's more of a "Thus saith the Lord..." type preaching.
The Bible doesn’t tell preachers how to preach. But what is it about? Who is the Bible about? What is this “historical redemptive plan” that is mentioned several times in his sermon?
Isaiah 55:11 “so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
http://www.newreformationpress.com/blog/nrp-freebies/the-gospel-for-those-broken-by-the-church/
Give it a read and listen ( it’s at the bottom ) and the sequel linked “Christianity in Five Verses”.
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Some preachers use the Bible as a tool to help you get better at x y or z. Some use it as a tool to beat you up and change your behavior. While others have an agenda like talk about today’s social and political problems, and use Jesus and the Bible to support their own ideas.
Some simply preach the text as-is and leave it up to the Holy Spirit to do the work. Lutherans ( usually ) have a Law and Gospel understanding of the Scriptures along with a Christo-centric versus a Theo-centric ( Reformed ) view which influences their preaching. Some are a mix of these two.
Of all the crap sermons being preached, if you are able to sit under expository and/or Law+Gospel sermons, you are blessed. But like I said previous, I think the movement towards “better” preaching has to continue to Gospel-centered preaching or it’s incomplete.
I will say this last sermon was better than the previous. Yes, the Gospel may have been *in there*, but it was more of an *out there* thing to my ears…it’s for someone else, but not for me. I still don’t feel like I “heard the Gospel” or if it was there, I didn’t hear it *for me*, like “This is what God has done for you; he has let his Son be made flesh for you, has let him be put to death for your sake.”
If Law+Gospel is not his thing, then he wouldn’t do it, so is it fair of me ( more importantly you ) to expect? That was a slightly rhetorical question. I think you have to ask yourself the question what does the Bible teach, what is its purpose?
Most Reformed preachers probably fit this model http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/what-i-mean-by-preaching
Nothing about Law or Gospel or Christ really. Just faithfully teach what is going on in the text, period. Might be more of Law, or sin or grace, or Gospel at times. So I think he did good at an expository type preaching and that is opening up the text and explaining it. In other words, it fits with his style, his training, etc. But it's more of a "Thus saith the Lord..." type preaching.
The Bible doesn’t tell preachers how to preach. But what is it about? Who is the Bible about? What is this “historical redemptive plan” that is mentioned several times in his sermon?
Isaiah 55:11 “so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
It will accomplish what He chooses to have done, it is the Word filled with His almighty power, and the omnipotent God Himself is active in and through it. The Gospel is a power of God unto salvation, Rom. 1, 16. 17. V. 12.
From here http://www.wels.net/what-we-believe/questions-answers/law-and-gospel click on the second plus + link.
“What did he [John] say was the purpose of everything he wrote in his book? "These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name" (John 20:31).
So, in other words, when we say we preach law and gospel, we mean this: we preach sin and grace. To put it another way we preach human sinfulness that has earned hell and divine grace in Christ that has given us heaven. That is at the heart of what Lutherans mean when say we preach law and gospel.”
In a sense, your preacher did show how “they” sinned and how God’s grace helped “them” and to some extent us. And how when we mess up, this sovereign God is still going to finish his plan. I think that is what I mean when I say it’s still “out there”. It’s not the preacher preaching God’s word ( Law ) to me exposing my sin, then giving me the salve of Christ’s ( the Living Word ) blood and righteousness *for me*.
More Lutheran Law Gospel
http://lutherantheology.wordpress.com/2011/04/26/a-brief-introduction-to-law-gospel/
a definition: "The Gospel, however, is that doctrine which teaches what a man should believe in order to obtain the forgiveness of sins from God, since man has failed to keep the law of God and has transgressed it, his corrupted nature, thoughts, words, and deeds war against the law, and he is therefore subject to the wrath of God, to death, to temporal miseries, and to the punishment of hell-fire. The content of the Gospel is this, that the Son of God, Christ our Lord, himself assumed and bore the curse of the law and expiated and paid for all our sins, that through him alone we reenter the good graces of God, obtain forgiveness of sins through faith, are freed from death and all the punishments of sin, and are saved eternally. "
