When was the last time you heard a "last days" sermon from the Old Testament?
Imagine with me Washington, D.C., without the White House, St. Louis without the Arch, Atlanta without the Varsity, New York without the Yankees, and L.A. without the Lakers. You begin to get a remote idea of what it means to have a gospel without the doctrine of the resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is more than a historical fact; it’s the main motif and high watermark of the historical drama known as God’s redemptive story.
Before you leave today, I am praying that God will give you a new identity: I am a minister.
Current homiletic approaches did not materialize in a vacuum. Their ascendancy to popularity did not just happen. Today at least three winds of influence swirl around contemporary homiletic discussion: theology, literary criticism and culture. Pastors who would think deeply about the form of their sermons and who care about faithfulness to the gospel must wrestle with the issues raised by each of these areas of thought.
How does one approach the final sermons in a church before resignation? After having to deal with this challenge a few times, let me make a few observations.
Here are five visible changes in sermons and sermon delivery we have observed over the past two decades.
Will this generation of gospel ministers finish the race? It will require gospel faithfulness at every turn.
During this election season, religion has come up many times. But for the most part, we haven’t heard from many pastors.
Sometimes God takes us out of comfort zones and allows us to be sifted because He loves us.