my life and my doctrine

I read this book in December or January and was convicted about what it is that I preach. Sure, it’s 20 years old. And sure, the font size in my copy is big, so it seemed easier to read and fast to finish.

John Piper is incredibly shaped by the Puritan Jonathan Edwards. It felt at points that he was summarising and paraphrasing Edwards on preaching. The result is a book which challenged me to reconsider what is the content of my preaching and how I think about it.

The content of preaching, Piper argues, ought to be the supremacy of God. His incredible sovereignty as the creator and sustainer of this universe. This is not to be a philosophical reflection on the other-ness of God. Rather a recognition of how holy he is and how sinful we are before him. This is helpful for a number of reasons:

1. We take the focus off ourselves.
   It is all too easy for my sermons to be addressing myself and the congregation as individuals, encouraging us to godly thinking and living and yet, not reflecting the worth, the glory or honour that God deserves. The danger I see is that a person-centred ministry could easily become moralistic, legalistic or this worldly.
2. We see the grace of God in his gift of Christ on the cross.
   As we refocus on our great and supreme God, we will appreciate the depravity of our sin, our helplessness before God and our utter dependancy on Him. This will turn us once again, back to the gospel, back to the message that Christ died for sinners and that we are saved by grace through faith.
3. We thank God for His Spirit, that enlightens our hearts and minds to know him.
   Therefore, the privilege that it is to preach is not due to personal merit, but the gracious gift of God working through his Word, by his Spirit.

This book also encouraged me to think differently about preaching. It is important to work on the ‘common graces’ of communication, eg how I speak, eye contact, facial expressions (or lack of in my case) etc. But being more dynamic doesn’t make up for lack of depth in content. The challenge for me is to keep working on the content, that I may be continually plumbing the depths of God’s character and then teaching this to others. If I haven’t learned anything in the preparation, I imagine not much will be taught.

It’s my goal to keep reading books on preaching. As I do, I am more committed to preparing better and often that means less time for blogs.

Yesterday I was chatting with an older and wiser friend, further down the ministry track than I am. We were discussing how often we think we can get more done than we really do. In particular I was lamenting how little I read last year, compared to my sedate goal of six books. The one thing I was glad of though, was my commitment to read my Bible more often and more regularly, even if it meant at the expense of other reading. It is probably obvious to you that reading the Bible is more important than any other book, but I certainly find it tempting to read other things before it.

So, next time you see me, if you ask me how my reading is going, check to see that I’m still regularly reading my Bible. (Right now I’m going through Isaiah. Hopefully a chapter a day and plan to be done by the 18th February.)

And, having said all that, if you’ve got suggestions on what should make my list of must read books for 2010, please let me know.

Commentaries are a wonderful resource provided by those who have the time, the skills and the brains to help us understand the Bible better.  However, how can we choose one or two from the many that are written on each book of the Bible? Often we can rely on the commentary series and four worth checking out are suggested below.

The reason that I’m writing this post is to point you to a great website where someone has done a lot of hard work in checking out many commentaries. From the few books that I did look at, I’m sure I’d trust their recommendation on the rest of the books.

http://www.ligonier.org/blog/2009/07/top-commentaries-on-every-book-of-the-bible.html

(Societas, the Moore College yearbook, also has a recommended commentary list. The most recent issue with one was 2007.)

Bible Speaks Today: A tried and true series which claims a three fold goal, ‘to expound the biblical text with accuracy, to relate it to contemporary life, and to be readable.’

Tyndale/Inter-Varsity Press: Another tried and true series which was originally based on the KJV. The General Preface for the Tyndale New Testament Commentary series states they ‘will be primarily exegetical and only secondarily homiletic, though it is hoped thatboth student and preacher will find them informative and suggestive.’

Teach the Bible: A recent series backed by the Proclamation Trust in which ‘the preacher or teacher, the sermon or talk, and the listener are the key “drivers”‘.

Read/Mark/Learn:  Another more recent series, built on the Read, Mark, Learn Bible study series at St Helen’s Bishopsgate, these are prewritten Bible studies/devotions that would be of great benefit to any Christian.