Here’s my usual weekly round up of preaching related gems on the www

Resolve has a link to a thoughtful piece by Sam Storm called ‘An Appeal to All Pastors: Why and How Should We Preach.’

Peter Mead’s Biblical Preaching site is always full of good material. Recently he challenged preachers, saying ‘Let us preach to the glory of God, but not hide behind that motivation as an excuse for irrelevant or application free sermons.’

Paul Lamey at Expository Thoughts has been wrestling with the issue of expository preaching and discussion: While discussion is excellent even essential at the right time, we should still remember that preaching is a “live” event in which the Word of God is to be heralded (2 Tim. 4:2) not discussed.

Also at Expository Thoughts, Caleb Kolstad draws comparisons between some preaching and pancake syrup.

Unashamed Workman points us to a useful article in Evangelicals Now by Tom Seidler, entitled, ‘Where are all the Elders?’

Don’t miss Michael Mckinley’s Defence of long, boring sermons

Between Two Worlds links to some advice on choosing commentaries for your library and Denver Seminary’s NT exegesis bibliography.

Just this morning I received in the post a free gift. With the generous permission of Dr. Arturo Azurdia III, Monergism is giving away for free an 81-part lecture series on the Book of Revelation in MP3 format on 2 CDs. You only cover the cost of shipping. Go on! You know you want to!

My Book of the Week No 10 is
‘Spirit Empowered Preaching‘ by Arturo Azurdia III and I’m thankful to my good friend Cliff Boone of Allentown, Pennsylvania for the recommendation, since I was previously unaware of this author. Azurdia is Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology and Director of Pastoral Mentoring at Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon and has an excellent website at www.spiritempoweredpreaching.com which I have just discovered and will be revisiting frequently, I am sure.

Refreshingly honest, Azurdia admits that “the majority of my efforts in pneumatology have been in establishing what the Spirit does not do, almost to the complete exclusion of establishing the magnificence of His person and the indispensability of His ministry in any positive way.” (p33)

The basic tenet of his book is that “any effective ministry must include both a resolute commitment to the practice of diligent exegesis and a thoroughgoing dependence upon the ministry of the Holy Spirit” (p14) and he maintains that “the greatest deficiency in contemporary expositional ministry is powerlessness; in other words, preaching that is devoid of the vitality of the Holy Spirit.” (p12)

Let me review this superb book by giving you a brief overview of the chapters.

1. The Greater Works - really an exposition of John 14v12, persuasively explaining the “greater works” which Jesus promised his disciples they would do after his ascension as the conversions of people and the advancement of the gospel.

2. The Sacred Communicator - he identifies the great deficiency, in so many preachers and so much preaching, of dependency on the vitality of the Holy Spirit. “Rarely are seminarians taught to pray and fast and weep for the subjective and internal illumination of the Holy Spirit in correspondence with their diligent efforts in the sacred text.” (p39)

3. The Christocentric Spirit - “Jesus will be the sum and substance of the Spirit’s revelatory ministry” (p31) “If ever we are to expect the Spirit’s enablement, we must be resolutely wedded to His purpose; to glorify Jesus Christ through the instrumentality of the Scriptures. When this message is our message we can look for His vitality. God’s purposes will advance. Hearts will burn. Minds will be opened. People will come to know and love Jesus Christ.” (p63)

4. The Evangelical Priority - in many ways a development of the previous chapter, but also a practical exposition of 1 Corinthians 1:18-21 and the fact that “apostolic ministry is characterised by a determination to proclaim a foolish message” (p69) Heart warming, confidence building stuff and badly needed today.

5. The Decisive Function of the Church - Azurdia maintains that the Bible itself establishes preaching as the primary method of communicating the message of the gospel, because “it is the best method suited to the nature of the message being preached.” (p8 He recognises that in many ways preaching is a counter-culture activity today and many preachers have gone with culture rather than Scripture.

6. The SineQua Non of Gospel Preaching - Azurdia really gets to the heart of his thesis here, based on all that has gone before. “It is not enough to possess the proper message. Nor is it enough to embrace the proper method. Gospel preachers desperately need the divinely appointed means; the clothing with power from on high.” (p112)

7. The Occupational Vulnerability of Preaching - one of the most uncomfortable but helpful chapters I have read for a long time. He describes this vulnerability as “to be possessed by a holy compulsion but hobbled by human inability” (p12 “But he must not seek to elude the pain by redefining the aim”

8. Preaching and the Man of God - the source of power in the preacher. This chapter, almost the book, is worth it just for the violin illustration!

9. The Sensitive Spirit - the role and responsibility of the congregation in bringing about spirit empowered preaching. Azurdia quotes Pierre Ch Marcel - “When, then, will the believers en masse understand that they are primarily responsible for the preaching which they hear, yes more than their preachers…preaching the word is a function and activity of the Church, not the function and specialty of a man.” (p152)

10. Pray Me Full - the necessity of prayer in the lives of the preacher and congregation

Most books on preaching devote a chapter or two to the role of the Holy Spirit in preaching. Here is a whole book given over to the subject and, as Joey Pipa says on the cover, “Everyone who is preaching, or preparing to preach, needs to read this book.”