Here are three messages I heard at the Together for the Gospel (T4G) Conference this last week that I would like to share with you. These messages have spurred me on to evangelize the lost, articulate the gospel, and pray about mission work. I hope they do the same for you.
Category: Preaching
The Relevance of Scripture | Part 2
In part 1 of this series, which you can read by clicking here, I gave my argument for why Scripture is relevant for us today. I concluded:
Scripture is relevant to us today because we deal with the same things those in biblical times dealt with.
Adam’s sin in the garden affected all mankind leaving us with a sinful nature (Gen. 3). Since we have a sinful nature, we not only sin, but are deficient, not understanding the way God would have us to live. The biblical writer understands man’s condition, and in his writings deals with man’s sins and deficiencies, the same sins and deficiencies we deal with today. Thus, understanding the sins, or deficiencies, a biblical writer is dealing with, and the commands, or counsel he offers, will provide us with the author’s purpose for writing the text, as well as it makes the text relevant for us today.
Where We are Headed Today
In what follows, I want to provide you with a few practical questions to ask in order to determine the author’s purpose. If we can find the author’s purpose, then we can determine what sins, or deficiencies, he was writing towards. This will help us to determine the FCF (Fallen Condition Focus), which is
The mutual human condition that contemporary believers share with those to or about whom the text was written that requires the grace of the passage for God’s people to glorify and enjoy him [1].
Once we determine the FCF, we are on our way to understanding how the passage relates to both biblical and modern times.
How do I Determine the Author’s Purpose?
In order to determine the author’s purpose you should ask these questions:
- Why are these concerns addressed?
- What causes this account, these facts, or the recording of these ideas?
- What was the intent of the author?
- For what purpose did the Holy Spirit include these words in Scripture? [2]
Example: Justification by Faith
For example, if the biblical writer brings up a particular doctrine, such as justification by faith, then you need to immediately ask why? Why did he brings this into the letter? It is not to provide his readers with a systematic theology lesson alone, he has a purpose.
The purpose could be that those whom he is writing were trying to earn their salvation through their works, were doubting the sufficiency of God’s grace, or they could have been afraid of God’s rejection because of a particular sin [3].
As you can see, there could be a number of reasons for writing about justification by faith, but you need to determine the particular reason for your text. Once you do so, you are on your way to determining the author’s purpose and the FCF he was writing toward.
An FCF Does Not Always = Sin
It is important you understand the FCF does not have to be a sin. We have deficiencies because of our sinful nature (fallen condition), which hinders us from living the way God would have us live. Bryan Chapell is helpful here when he says,
An FCF need not be something for which we are guilty or culpable. It simply needs to be an aspect or problem of the human condition that requires the instruction, admonition, and/or comfort of Scripture. Thus, an FCF is always phrased in negative terms. It is something wrong (though not necessarily a moral evil) that needs correction or encouragement from Scripture [4].
What are things other than sin that need to be addressed? Some examples could be:
- Parenting from a biblical standpoint (Eph. 6:4)
- Marriage (Eph. 5)
- Sex (1 Cor. 7)
- Grief (1 Pet. 1:6; 1 Thess. 4:13)
- Spiritual Gifts (1 Cor. 12)
- Prayer (1 Jn. 5:14)
These are not sins, but they are things we, as fallen man, need biblical instruction, admonition, and/or comfort concerning.
Application
After you have determined the author’s purpose for writing the text by determining the FCF of those to whom he is writing, you need to explore what he says about the FCF. How does he instruct his readers to handle their particular sin or deficiency? In other words, how does he apply the doctrine, instruction, command, or admonition to the FCF? Once we understand how the biblical writer applies the text to the lives of his readers, we can do the same to ours.
Specificity
When applying the text to your own life, or another you are close with, be specific. For example:
Instead of saying, “Prayer is so powerful it can save an individual from hell,” be specific by personalizing the truth. Say, “My prayer for my rebellious son is so powerful it can save my son from experiencing a life of sin, heartache, and eternal damnation” [5].
Specificity is a powerful tool because it drives the truth into the heart and causes one to act.
Conclusion
Understanding the author has a purpose for writing his text, and that purpose is to deal with man’s sins or deficiencies (FCF), the same sins and deficiencies we deal with today, helps us to see how a 4,000+ plus old text is still relevant for us today. Once you understand the FCF the author is writing toward, you can then take and apply his words to your own life. Your specific situation may look a little different than the situation in the biblical text, or it may not, but you can still take and apply that truth to your life.
This week, as you read through the text, I challenge you to start looking for the author’s purpose, the FCF he is writing towards, and how he is applying God’s truth to his readers lives. After which, you should apply that same truth to your own life. Doing so will help you to see how relevant the Bible really is, and will cause your passion and desire for Scripture to increase exponentially.
Resources
[1] Chapell, Bryan, Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon, 50.
[2]Ibid, 48-49.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid, 51-52 .
[5] Ibid, 51.
Image: Adrian van Leen for openphoto.net CC:PublicDomain
The Relevance of Scripture | Part 1
How is a 4,000 yrs old + book relevant for today? That is the question most people ask when they approach the Bible. They read about the Law, tent dwellers, and shepherds. They think back to a time where television and the internet were not even a glimmer in someone’s eye. Skyscrapers did not rule the air, nor were we immediately accesible through email, text message, or a mobile phone. With this in mind, how does such a foreign time remain relevant to us today?
Scripture is for Equipping
The apostle Paul tells us,
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17).
Paul informs us that every word of Scripture is God-breathed and useful in order to equip the man of God. Knowing that all Scripture is useful is part of Scripture being relevant for today, but there is another piece of the puzzle we must fill in before we have our answer [1].
Scripture is Written with a Purpose
Each writer had a specific purpose for the text he wrote, which is the missing piece to our puzzle. Modern writers write with purpose. They do not write a short story, poem, or book without a reason or purpose for doing so. In biblical times, it was no different. Every story, poem, and book in the Bible has a purpose for being there.
From Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 3, we know the purpose of the biblical writer was to thoroughly equip the man of God for every good work. The way the biblical writer equips is no different than how our modern writers would equip. They looked at the situations the readers were facing and wrote toward those ends.
Our Issues are More Similar Than You Think
Some of you may be thinking, those in biblical times did not face the same situations I do today. How could they? There time was much different than mine. Even though all the modern conveniences were not available, and their culture was not exactly like ours, the situations the writers and readers of the biblical text dealt with are strikingly similar.
From the beginning of the Bible we see writers writing about men who desire power, wanting to be their own gods (Gen. 3), adultery and enticing women (Gen. 39; Prov.1-8), as well as barrenness (Gen. 16 -17). Demon possession (Luke 4), Homosexuality (Rom. 1), Disunity in the church (1 Cor. 3; Eph. 4; Phil. 2), Lawsuits (1 Cor. 6), Marriage (1 Cor. 7; Eph. 5), Partiality (James 2), Speech (James 3), Enemies (Matt. 5), Judging others (Matt. 7), and Anxiousness (Matt. 6) are a few more purposes for which the biblical writers wrote. Even though our world’s may look a little different on the outside, we are all still dealing with the same things on the inside.
Fallen Condition Focus (FCF)
Bryan Chapell calls
The mutual human condition that contemporary believers share with those to or about whom the text was written that requires the grace of the passage for God’s people to glorify and enjoy him is the Fallen Condition Focus [2].
Our world, and the biblical writers world, is corrupt and fallen. Since our world and man is corrupt, we need the grace of God to instruct us in how to live. The Word of God is designed to do just that, to instruct us in how we are to live, and it was the writers of God’s Word, inspired by the Holy Spirit, who took up that task in their writings.
Conclusion
As you read through the text, you can be assured that God’s Word is relevant for you. The times may be different, but we are still fallen and corrupt, needing God’s grace to instruct us in how to live. The biblical writers, just like the writers of today, write with a purpose. Their purpose is to thoroughly equip us for every good work. They do so through the many stories, poems, letters, and books they wrote.
So then, when we approach a text of Scripture, we need to first determine what FCF the writer is seeking to address, then we need to identify how we are to respond biblically to the FCF the writer is addressing.
Next time
In my next post, I will look more specifically at how we are to determine the purpose of the biblical writer and the FCF he is addressing.
Resources
[1] Chapell, Bryan, Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon, 49. See also pages 48-51.
[2] Ibid., 50.
Image: Adrian van Leen for openphoto.net CC:PublicDomain
How To Be More Pointed with Your Application
Is your application reaching the entire city?
Peter Adam’s provides 8 ways we can be more pointed in our application of Scripture in our preaching ministry. These are good to think through as you prepare your sermon. If you are not a preacher, and most of you reading this blog are not, feel free to forward this along to your pastor. I believe these are helpful tips.
Here is what Adam’s says:
(1) Ask: What message does God want to give these people from this text?
(2) Focus upon four or five representative people in your congregation (one old, one young, one single, one married, one male, one female, etc.) and think through what difference you want this text to make to their lives.
(3) Work out the main ideas, preconceptions, movements, and theological strands in the congregation, and apply the text to each of them (the conservatives, the charismatics, the progressives, etc.).
(4) Meet once a week with various members of the congregation, talk with them about the text you plan to preach on next Sunday, and ask them what they make of it.
(5) Meet every Monday night with a small group to discuss the sermon you preached yesterday, and the text you will preach on next Sunday.
(6) Imagine you are counseling an individual. How would you apply this text to that person?
(7) Pray for your people more, and learn to love them more. Love is quick-eyed.
(8) Spend only half your preparation time one the meaning of the text, and then spend the rest of the time working on the application.
Resource
Quoted from Peter Adam Speaking God’s Words, 133.
Why Preach Expository Sermons?
Today I am reading through Peter Adam’s book Speaking God’s Words, and I came across a section on why we need to preach expository messages. I would like to share with you what Adam’s says.
Reasons For Preaching Expository Messages:
(1) Expository sermons help us to let God set the agenda for our lives.
The danger of topical preaching is that it implies that we know what is important! Expository preaching lets God set the agenda in an obvious and public way.
(2) Expository preaching treats the Bible as God treated it, respecting the particular contexts, history and style of the human authors.
God chose to have the Bible written in books, each by a human author, and not as a collection of useful but disconnected sayings. We should follow God by preaching the way He wrote.
(3) This kind of preaching gives ample time for us to make clear the context of the Bible passage from which we are preaching.
If the Bible passage follows on from last week, the congregation will understand the context clearly. If I change the context each week, and include three or four Bible passages in my sermon, it will be very hard for the congregation to hear any text in context. This is not a model we should encourage. Expository preaching helps us to take each text in context, as God causes it be written.
Resource
Quoted from Peter Adam, Speaking God’s Words, 128.
Illustrations and Their Benefits
Last time, I wrote about the necessity of using illustrations in our sermons. You can read that post here. Today, I want to talk about the benefits of using illustrations. The first one will be obvious, but the others you may not have thought about.
Benefits
(1) Illustrations help the audience understand the theological point
Through stories, listeners are able to come to a deeper more full understanding of the theological point because we learn best when the abstract is made concrete.
(2) Illustrations connect the preacher to the audience in a way pure exposition cannot
The preacher connects and bonds with the audience because his personal perspectives are revealed through the stories he chooses to use as his illustrations.
(3) Illustrations reveal the character of the preacher
Behind every illustration, the personal story of the preacher lies. Bryan Chapell says, “Your own personal story always shimmers in the background of any story you tell, witnessing to your own character, principles, and priorities.[1] In essence you are saying, “This is what I think this means in my world.” [2]
(4) Illustrations reveal your personal trustworthiness
Depending on the illustration you select your congregation will determine if you are trustworthy. If you select an illustration that holds out ideals or expectations one cannot hope to attain, then your audience will lose trust in your judgment. On the other hand, when you select illustrations that apply directly to the context of your audience and which contain ideals and expectations that are attainable, the audiences’ trust in your judgments grow.
(5) Illustrations have the power to reveal your personal integrity
If you consistently give credit where credit is due, not using others stories as your own, and give proper facts, then your personal integrity will grow. A preacher who consistently and knowingly passes stories off as his own, when they are not, proves he has an integrity issue.
(6) Illustrations help the audience see “themselves in the contexts of Scripture’s realities” [3]
When the audience hears of someone facing the same struggles they are, they realize they are not living in isolation. They also realize there is an answer to their problem that exists in Scripture.
Resource
[1] Bryan Chapell, Using Illustrations to Preach with Power, 133.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.,136
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