The Privilege, Promise, Power & Peril of Doctrinal Preaching

by Thomas J. Nettles

The ministry of Joel Osteen is impressive for his amazing ability to make pure self-interest seem like Christian truth.

Haha, yes.

Joel Osteen represents the triumph of man-centeredness in the evangelical pulpit. Though his emphases are shocking, they draw upon the theological concession of the power of the human will and the priority of human well-being as central to Christian theology.

No note.

Jesus expected the preachers of the church for which he was dying to preach doctrine (Mark 13:9–11; 14:8, 9; Luke 9:1, 2; 24:44–49). That liberal mantra that espoused the deceitful dichotomy that “Christianity is not a dogma but a life” has been matched by the equally puzzling evangelical proposition that “living the Book is better than knowing the Book,” announced by Matt Chandler at the Converge conference. Such minimization of the importance of doctrine and robust knowledge of the whole of Scripture has served as the devil’s death angel, smothering the church’s witness to the truth in many a generation.

Think on this.

One may see the same effect in expository messages which ignore the larger doctrinal witness of Scripture. In reality, these are not expository messages. Individual passages are meaningless until seen within the complete storyline of Scripture. The meaning of any text includes what the entire biblical witness contributes to it.

Line upon line...

In a brief article entitled “The Gospel Idea of Preaching,” R. L. Dabney argued that since the preacher “is simply to make the people see and feel what is in the word of God, preaching should usually be what is popularly known as ‘expository.’” Exposition is not done, however, when all the attention is paid to a solitary proposition singled out from its connection “to the exclusion of those truths which God has placed beside it.” No, “the Scriptures are a whole,” and individual passages “must be unfolded in their connection.” If one departs from that method to preach topically upon a single proposition, it should still be a true exposition, “an evolution of the meaning of the spirit in that text.”[ii]

More on expository preaching.

To be a good expositor, therefore, one must first be a good theologian. Theology— truth about God and man— is what God has put into the texts of Scripture, and theology is what preachers must draw out of them.[iii]

First part sounds like a Dixon's Maxim.

One, preaching should propagate doctrine. The inculcation of some particular teaching of divine revelation arising from its immediate context and placed in a complementary relationship with the whole biblical context should be one goal of every sermon. It is possible to view oneself as an expository preacher and completely miss the mark.

If doctrine is not found in Scripture, where is it.

Second, your preaching is to be more kerygmatically doctrinal than that of Jesus. Third, as new covenant ministers, neither your style nor content should veil Christ.

Kerygmatically is " to herald" but was Jesus too vague?

All his knowledge of divine things comes from the propositions of Scripture.

If all preaching is doctrine and not all doctrine is from Scripture, where does doctrine come from?