Haggai, Zechariah by Mark J. Boda

Author:Mark J. Boda
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Education, Encyclopedias & Subject Guides, Reference, Old Testament, Religion & Spirituality, Bible Study, Bible Study & Reference, Old Testament Study, General, Religion, Religious Studies & Reference, Biblical Commentary, Commentaries, Guides, Christian Books & Bibles
ISBN: 9780310206156
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2004-09-29T08:00:00+00:00

Spirit without Word we blow up.

Word and Spirit we grow up.

God grants us his Spirit as the Spirit of truth, who guides us into deeper spiritual insight and knowledge (Eph. 1:15–23; 3:14–21). This guidance is true for each one of us as individuals, but also for the church as a whole. We must return to Spirit-filled interpretations of God’s Word on every level of the church as we face a cultural context hostile to the claims of this Word.

This means that we must recover the rhythms of exegesis as leaders in the church on the vocational and lay level. There is no replacement for the example of godly leadership working with the text before the community of faith, whether in Bible studies, formal growth classes, or sermons. This also should be supplemented with regular opportunities for God’s people to learn how to interpret the Scriptures on their own.33 However, it is not merely a matter of teaching interpretive methodology, for we cannot lose sight of the Spirit’s role in interpretation.

When I began teaching courses on preaching, I searched for appropriate textbooks for the course. I found many books available on the market, written by authors who approached the Scriptures as authoritative for contemporary faith and life. But as I perused many of these books, I found little emphasis on the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the preparation and delivery of sermons. One of the most popular books for preaching in North America, which has influenced preachers studying at evangelical colleges and seminaries for the past twenty-five years, provided a systematic approach for studying the Scriptures and preparing a clear and concise message for contemporary audiences, but there was no mention of the ministry of the Holy Spirit and only a passing reference to the importance of prayer.

As I began to search for elongated treatments on the ministry of the Spirit and prayer for preaching, I found a section in John Stott’s Between Two Worlds and a chapter in Martin Lloyd-Jones’ classic Preaching and Preachers. Then I had to mine the works of earlier centuries, in which I found rich resources for preaching that guided earlier generations in the preparation of sermons for God’s people.34 These older giants of the faith knew the importance of cultivating the life of the Spirit in order that it might produce a rich harvest of deep, sensitive, and relevant preaching and teaching for their people. They consistently called leaders in the church to a life of prayer, especially but not exclusively in relation to the ministry of preaching and teaching. They remind us of the need to pray as we prepare to preach and teach this Word, a principle taught so clearly and passionately by James Flavel:

Thus laying our foundations in the knowledge of principles, choosing our subjects by the people’s necessities; handling them in apt language; working them first upon your own affections, enforcing them by strict conversation, and steeping this holy seed in prayer; we shall approve ourselves the prudent ministers of Christ.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.