What Does Church History Have to Do with Preaching?

Participating in a forum in the Summer 1999 edition of the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, Timothy George cites the value of church history in preaching and worship: "Doctrinal preaching has both a propositional and incarnational dimension. It is the truth of God's Word distilled and applied to fallen and redeemed human beings, but it is also that truth lived out in the flesh and blood reality of the people of God. In an era when narrative preaching and personal autobiographical reminiscence has become the norm in many pulpits, I think we should extend the scope of our narrative reach to include those who are now, by God's grace, in the Church triumphant."

Illustration: Sin, Awareness

Some people have a tough time recognizing themselves as sinners. Joel Hunter tells of a friend who "once found himself in a conversation with a prison inmate who was serving time for robbery. My friend mentioned he recently read in the paper about a man who had robbed a house and killed the family. 'You know,' the inmate replied, 'it's people like that who give robbery a bad name.'"

Illustration: Forgiveness

The scene is a courtroom trial in South Africa. A frail black woman stands slowly to her feet. She is more than 70 years old. Facing her from across the room are several white security police officers. One of them, Mr. Van der Broek, has just been tried and found guilty in the murders of first the woman's son and then her husband. He had come to the woman's home, taken her son, shot him at point-blank and then burned the young man's body while he and his officers partied nearby.

Can Evangelistic Preaching Be Expository?

In the book Give Praise to God: A Vision for Reforming Worship (P&R Publishing), Mark Dever writes, "Expositional preaching is all about giving God's people God's Word. It is preaching in which the point of the biblical passage is the point of the preacher's message. This is what it means to preach expositionally -- to expose God's Word.

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

If you are looking for a summer reading book, try Eric Metaxas' biography Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy (Thomas Nelson). It is the well-written and engaging story of the German pastor-theologian who opposed Hilter and ultimately paid for that with his life. Among his writings were the influential book The Cost of Discipleship, and Bonhoeffer's own life was evidence of a man who knew the cost and followed Christ despite the cost. It is a fascinating story that will inspire the reader.

Illustration: Success

In his new biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Eric Metaxas observes of the German pastor-theologian: "In his book Ethics...Bonhoeffer wrote about the way people worship success. The topic fascinated him. He referred to it in his letter from Barcelona many years earlier, in which he observed the fickleness of the crowds at bullfights, how they roared for the toreador one moment and for the bull the next. It was success they wanted, success more than anything. In Ethics, he wrote:

Text-Driven Application

In the new book Engaging Exposition (B&H Academic), Danny Akin talks about sermon application that is rooted in the biblical text. He says: "First, text-driven application is grounded in biblical truth gained through historical, grammatical, literary, and theological analyses of the biblical text. Application necessarily flows from our exegesis and exposition. The order is not optional. It is essential. Practical application must find its foundation in biblical exposition."