Thursday 17 November 2011

The Use of the Bible in Evangelical Preaching Today 2 (Charles Cameron)

This is the second and final part of the previous post, "The Use of the Bible in Evangelical Preaching Today 1" by Charles Cameron.
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With this understanding of preaching, we will take care to hold doctrine and experience together. J. 1. Packer emphasizes that ‘revelation is ... much more than propositional’. (25) E. Schillebeeckx emphasizes that ‘the right propositional understanding of revelation ... must be kept in a right relation to the experience with which this propositional language is associated’.(26) Developing this theme further, Schillebeeckx describes Scripture as the point of contact between the spiritual experience of the biblical writers and today’s readers and hearers who are now being invited by Scripture to enter into the same experience of the living God:

As a testimony to the experience of those who created it Scripture is an offer – a possibility that this experience can be extended to others.(27)

There is the relationship between the words of Scripture and the power of the Spirit. Rightly understood, the words of Scripture are not mere words. They are words which speak with power. Jesus makes this point within the context of his own ministry.

The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life (Jn. 6:63).

Paul, like Jesus, could not conceive of ministry as a thing of words only. True ministry is ministry empowered by the Spirit:

My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power (1 Cor. 2:4).

Our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction (1 Thess. 1:5).

In our preaching of God’s word today we must earnestly pray for this dual ministry of the Spirit:

The Spirit ... opens up the Scripture to us and ‘opens’ us to the Scripture.(28)

Being opened up by the Spirit to the Scripture can be an uncomfortable experience. Where the word of God is preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, we have the situation described in the letter to the Hebrews:

The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword ... discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do (4:12-13).

Scripture does not speak of salvation only. It also speaks about sin. Scripture does not speak only of the love of God. It also speaks of the holiness of God. When Jesus spoke of the ministry of the Holy Spirit he said this:

When he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgement (Jn. 16:8).

There are uncomfortable truths concerning which the Lord Jesus says, ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches’ (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22).

If we should be faithful preachers of God’s word, we must preach what people need to hear, and not simply what they want to hear. This is not only the way of faithfulness, it is also the way of relevance. Those who seek relevance at the expense of faithfulness turn out to be irrelevant. Their shallow and superficial preaching turns out to be no real substitute for ‘the living and abiding word of God’ through which alone the hearers can be ‘born anew’ (1 Pet. 1:23). Before we can truly appreciate the grace of God in the gospel, we must understand that ‘there is no human solution to the human problem’. (29) This can be a painful experience. We do our hearers no favours if we pay little attention to the uncomfortable truths of God’s word. G. C. Berkouwer ends his discussion, ‘The Voice of Karl Barth’ with these words:

He discovered the powerful witness of the ‘tremendous’ word that always speaks against us so that we can learn to stop speaking against it.(30)

To appreciate Barth’s emphasis on the centrality of Christ, we must first hear the word speaking against us. Concerning the message of the Bible, Barth writes:

The Bible says all sorts of things certainly; but in all this multiplicity and variety; it says in truth only one thing – just this: the name of Jesus Christ.(31)

In the presence of Jesus Christ we learn that we are sinners, but we learn also that CHRIST loves sinners. Unlike the Pharisees who despised ‘sinners’ Jesus Christ ‘receives sinners’ (Lk. 15:2). In the presence of Christ we encounter both perfect holiness and perfect love. In Christ we discover ‘an unmerited abundance of love’.(32) This love leads us to a special kind of obedience – the obedience of love. ‘We love because he first loved us’ (1 Jn. 4:19). In Christ we face the claim of love upon our lives. This living presence of Christ inviting us to receive salvation and calling us to embark on the pathway of discipleship is the depth-dimension of preaching. On the face of it, preaching involves a preacher giving an address to a congregation. There is, however, something much deeper than that going on when the word of God is preached. D.G. Miller in an article entitled ‘Biblical Theology and Preaching’ highlights this depth-dimension of preaching:

In a real sermon ... Christ is the preacher. The preacher speaks through the preacher ... The biblical view of preaching is to confront men with the question, ‘What think ye of Christ?’ And out of this question, to have the encounter shift into the dimension of a personal confrontation by Christ, who himself asks, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ This is the unique task of the Christian preacher.(33)

Describing further the purpose of preaching, Miller continues:

Preaching must always be for decision. Our aim is not merely to inform the mind, to stimulate the feelings so that men have a rather pleasant emotional experience: it is rather to strike directly at the will with the demand for decision ... until we have confronted men with the issue so that they either have to surrender or rebel further, to accept it or reject, believe or disbelieve.(34)

This decision concerning Jesus Christ is also a decision concerning the meaning, purpose and direction of our own lives – ‘Deciding about him is at the same time deciding about ourselves.’(35) As we hear the story of Jesus Christ, the word of God tells us the story of our own lives – what we are and what we can become. The call for decision is a call to leave behind what we are in our sin, and move on to what we can become in Christ.

If evangelical preaching is to make a significant impact on today’s world, it dare not rest content with giving theological lectures. Stressing the relevance of the Bible to our life today, D. E. Stevenson describes the Bible as ‘a hall of mirrors’ and offers this advice: ‘Look into it properly and you will see yourself.’(36) The preacher dare not place himself far above the people, preaching a message which goes over the heads of the people. The preacher, no less than his hearers, must sit under the word of God. If he is to preach a message which is relevant to the life of his hearers he must first find in Scripture a word that is relevant to his own life. This involves much more than being an academic theologian who seeks intellectual stimulation from his study of the Bible. The preacher is not to remain a stranger to the people. He dare not speak as a theologian, proud of his education yet detached from his hearers’ life- situation. The preacher is to be a friend to his hearers. He lives among them. He meets them in the streets and at the shops. He visits them in hospital and at home. He teaches their children at school. He hears about and shares the joys and concerns of the community in which he lives. Within this very human context the pulpit must not become an ivory tower of irrelevance. Though not merely human – he is an ‘ambassador for Christ’, bringing to his hearers ‘the message of reconciliation’ (2 Cor. 5:19-20) – the preacher must not ignore the very human context in which the word of God is to be preached. In preaching from the Scriptures he proclaims a word which transforms the present and not merely a word that belongs to the past. The preacher who is sensitive to the pastoral relationships which exists between himself and the people will not preach messages which could be preached anywhere and at anytime. He takes account of the particular situation into which he is called to preach God’s word. He seeks to hear and to speak the word which God wants to speak to this people at this time. The method of preaching will vary from sermon to sermon, from one series of sermons to another. The manner in which we preach remains constant. It is to be preaching grounded in the Scriptures, centred on Christ and empowered by the Spirit.

Such preaching has relevance, not only for the Church but also for the world. The gospel cannot be kept within the ‘four walls’ of the Church. Paul described the gospel in this way – ‘The gospel for which I am suffering and wearing chains like a criminal’. He then went on to say, ‘But the word of God is not fettered’ (2 Tim. 2:9). Sometimes the preacher will feel like Paul – imprisoned within his circumstances. He may feel imprisoned within a clerical strait-jacket. He may feel imprisoned within the limitations of being only one man, able to do so much and no more. Like Paul, however, the preacher can lift up his eyes to the word of God which is able to break free from such imprisoning limitations. When the word of God is preached, it is not simply a proclamation by one man within the ‘four walls’ of the Church. It is a proclamation which reaches out into the world. It is carried by the hearers into their life situations. This fact encourages the preacher to believe that his message preached may be just the spark which gets a fire going. His preaching may be just the spark which sets the Church on fire with a real desire to pass on the good news of Christ’s love to the needy world. The possibility of being the spark which lights a fire gives the preacher greater boldness. It assures him that his preaching is not as insignificant and ineffective as he may sometimes feel. There is, however, a humbling factor here. The preacher receives boldness in answer to the prayers of God’s people.

Pray ... for me, that utterance may be given me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel (Eph. 6:18-19)

There is no true boldness in preaching without the prayers of faithful man and women who call upon God on behalf of the preacher.

With the supporting prayers of God’s people, the preacher goes into the pulpit. Through the continuing witness of God’s people, the preached word goes beyond the pulpit into the world. The preacher is one among many within the fellowship of the Lord’s people. His ministry is significant, but so also is the ministry exercised by others. As we consider the relationship between the pastor and the people we must never forget that the spark which gets the fire going is the power of the Holy Spirit. If there is to be a fire lit in our day, it will not be the work of man but the mighty working of the Spirit. In all the works of ministry-the ministry of the preacher and the ministry of the people – there is something we must never forget:

We are servants of the word and not its masters ... Not only are we servants of the word ... we are unprofitable servants.(37)
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(25) ‘Infallible Scripture in the Role of Hermeneutics’ in D. A. Carson & J. D. Woodbridge (eds) Scripture and Truth, IVP, Leicester, (1983), p. 35

(26) Christ, the Christian Experience in the Modem World, SCM Press, London, (1980), p. 54.

(27) Christ, the Christian Experience in the Modem World, SCM Press, London, (1980) p. 68.

(28) J. Veenhof, ‘Holy Spirit and Holy Scripture’, Scottish Bulletin Evangelical Theology, Vol. 2, (Autumn 1986).

(29) J. Mcquarrie, Studies in Christian Existentialism, The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, (1965), p. 8 (italics original).

(30) A Half-Century of Theology, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, (1977), p. 74.

(31) Church Dogmatics, 1.2. T & T Clarke, Edinburgh, (1956), p. 720.

(32) E. Schilebeckx, Christ, The Christian Experience in the Modem World, SCM (1981).

(33) Scottish Journal of Theology, Vol. 11, No. 4, (Dec. 1958), pp. 393, 395-6.

(34) Scottish Journal of Theology, Vol. 11, No. 4, (Dec. 1958), p. 399.

(35) N. J. Young, History and Existential Theology, The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, (1969), p. 122.

(36) D. E. Stevenson, In the Biblical Preacher’s Workshop, Abingdon Press, Nashville, (1967), p. 93.

(37) D. E. Stevenson, In the Biblical Preacher’s Workshop, Abingdon Press, Nashville, (1967), p. 16.
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