Status Updates From Preaching: A God-Centred Vi...

Chapter Eight | “Jesus Christ is not only the preacher’s subject; he must also be preacher’s model, shaping how we should speak of him. … If preachers are to set forth Christ faithfully in the full colours of his glory, we must, like him, delight in God and love the sinners we address.”

Chapter Seven | “Preachers, if you would turn hearts to God, you must always give people the one message with the power of God to win their hearts. … Let people see the sheer beauty of Christ [in your preaching]. Show them how he is better and more delightful than all the idols that entrance them. Open their eyes, and so win their hearts with the gospel.”

Chapter Six “As God does, preachers must use their words to exalt Christ, to reason and persuade, to capture the imagination and desires of their people. Dullness does not express the beauty of a heart-winning Savior. We must, ask JC Ryle put it, turn our hearers’ ears into eyes and make them clearly see what we speak of. For it is by beholding the glory of the Lord that they will be transformed (2 Cor. 3:18).”

Chapter Five | “Preachers must be concerned for both the heads and the hearts of their listeners. They share the light of the knowledge of God in order that those who hear may share the life of God. They share a knowledge of God that cannot be separated from a love of God. Preaching should foster worship.”

Chapter Four | “If the desire of the Father, the work of the Spirit, and the purpose of Scripture is to herald Jesus, then so must the faithful preacher. If the Son‘s great and eternal goal is to win for himself a bride, that is heralds must woo for him.”

Chapter 3 | “Preachers themselves are not the light but are there to bear up the light. Therein lies a humbling but relieving comfort for preachers who are all too aware of their weaknesses and shortcomings. Though they are feeble in themselves, the Word they wield is a glorious, illuminating light, shining with the majesty of its Author.”

Chapter Three: “An Encounter with God.” “The preacher depends on Scripture in its supreme authority, whereas Scripture never depends upon the preacher. The Word heard from the pulpit is authoritative only insofar as it is a faithful proclamation of the Word of God. However, insofar as it is faithful, the people hear the very word of God.”

Chapter 1 | “Preaching is not some burden we must shoulder while God sits back in heaven. Human preachers are not the hired hands of a lazy or exclusive CEO. God is the first and primary preacher, the one whose very identity is to make known his life-giving Word. When we preach that Word, we are taking no initiative, but sharing in the life of God: we preach because he first preached to us.”

Sinclair Ferguson on #Preaching | “Every preacher who stands in a tradition of the prophets to John the Baptist and the apostles to Paul of Tarsus must begin with his finger somewhere on the text of Scripture. But then that finger must be raised up along with the voice of its owner to say, ‘[Behold!] Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’ (John 1:29).”

The author has talked about a number things, but I think most impactful for me has been his reminder of who our savior is. Jesus is the word, but the word alone is not him. He is complex, so focusing on one attribute can cause us to lose the forest for the trees. I’m am convicted to see Jesus as the living God and not as a historical figure to be admired.