Expositional Preaching by David R. Helm

Author:David R. Helm
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crossway

This example from Habakkuk 3 brings us back to the question of whether preachers can connect Old Testament passages to Christ without undermining what it meant for the original historical audience. Is there a way forward that follows the principle Jesus laid out in Luke 24—that all the Scriptures relate to his gospel—yet does not dehistoricize the text? Of course, we might also ask this question of the New Testament. It is so easy to get lost in the historical context of second temple Judaism or Greco-Roman backgrounds and never ask the question of how a passage really relates to the gospel. The challenge of the historical-critical method becomes one of how. How do we reflect theologically on a biblical text without compromising its historical integrity?

First and foremost, this question of theological reflection must begin with prayer. That is, the “work” of theological reflection can only be done through prayer. There is an intimate connection between the revelation of the identity of Christ—seeing him as the fulfillment of the Scriptures—and moments of prayerful quiet.

Luke makes this connection on a number of occasions. When Peter responds to Jesus’s question, “But who do you say that I am?” with “the Christ of God,” the readers had just been told that Jesus was praying alone (Luke 9:18–20). In other words, Luke wants his readers to know that Jesus was revealed to Peter in the context of prayer. The transfiguration, when Jesus was revealed in his glory as the Son, the Chosen One, follows Jesus taking Peter, James, and John to go to the mountain and pray (Luke 9:28–36). Back in the beginning of the Gospel, aged Simeon and Anna are both identified as pious people of prayer—statements that immediately precede God’s revealing Jesus to them (Luke 2:27, 37; cf. Luke 2:28–32, 38). Even when God reveals the identity of Jesus at his baptism, Luke records that the heavens were opened and that God spoke, claiming Jesus as his Son. Luke records that the heavens opened just as Jesus was praying (Luke 3:21–22).

Luke could not have been any clearer: God reveals Jesus to people as a consequence of prayer. And so, if we really want Jesus to be revealed in our preaching—if we really want to uncover Jesus as the very center of all the Scriptures—then we must begin with prayer in our preparation. Only then can we begin a serious phase of theological reflection. Only then can we move into the work of biblical theology and systematic theology.

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