As a part of of our ongoing series on the 39 Articles, we welcome this week The Rev’d Dr. Peter Moore. Peter will be addressing Articles 6 & 7 in a sermon entitled, “Scripture: God Speaks.”

The sermon audio and video will be available on our site by Sunday afternoon.

You can also keep up with our sermons via our mobile app or as a podcast available from the iTunes store.

I ran across the 40th Anniversary Edition of Preaching & Preachers by Martyn Lloyd-Jones last week.  The classic text has been reprinted with commemorative essays by Mark Dever, Tim Keller, John Piper, Bryan Chapell, Ligon Duncan and a few others.

I first read this book when I was 23 and just starting seminary.  Even though I began public speaking/preaching/teaching (at churches/diocese) at 19 the content of Lloyd-Jones’ book was, obviously, mostly theory at that point in my life.  Now, 25 years after my first (and only) read of the book, I’m reading this Anniversary Edition with much more appreciative eyes.

Lloyd-Jones sets out in his opening chapter to address the devaluation of preaching.  He begins with this:

I would not hesitate to put in the first position: the loss of belief in the authority of the Scriptures, and diminution in the belief of the Truth.  I put this first because I am sure it is the main factor. If you have not got authority, you cannot speak well, you cannot preach.  Great preaching always depends upon great themes. Great themes always produce great speaking in any realm, and this is particularly true, of course, in the realm of the Church.  While man believed in the Scriptures as the authoritative word of God and spoke on the basis of that authority you had great preaching.  But once that went, and men began to speculate, into theorize, and to put up hypotheses and so on, the eloquence and the greatness of the spoken word in inevitably declined and began to wane.  You cannot really deal with speculations and conjectures in the same way as preaching had formerly dealt with the great themes of Scriptures.  But as belief in the great doctrines of the Bible began to go out, and sermons are replaced by ethical addresses and homilies, and moral uplift and socio-political talk, it is not surprising that preaching declined.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers, p. 21

It’s well worth your time to obtain a copy of the book – especially if you’re a preacher, even more so if you’re an Episcopalian/Anglican since so much of our preaching is lamentable (observationally, we’ve abdicated the primacy of the pulpit, and the teaching role of the sermon, to the Prayer Book and liturgy).

Glad to have Rob aboard. In case you missed it this past Sunday, here’s his first sermon in the Ministry Center:

A portion of a sermon preached by Melito Bishop of Sardis around 180 AD:

And so He was lifted up upon a tree and an inscription was attached indicating who was being killed. Who was it? It is a grievous thing to tell, but a most fearful thing to refrain from telling. But listen, as you tremble before him on whose account the earth trembled!
He who hung the earth in place is hanged.
He who fixed the heavens in place is fixed in place.
He who made all things fast is made fast on a tree.
The Sovereign is insulted.
God is murdered.
The King of Israel is destroyed by an Israelite hand.
This is the One who made the heavens and the earth,
and formed mankind in the beginning,
The One proclaimed by the Law and the Prophets,
The One enfleshed in a virgin,
The One hanged on a tree,
The One buried in the earth,
The One raised from the dead and who went up into the heights of heaven,
The One sitting at the right hand of the Father,
The One having all authority to judge and save,
Through Whom the Father made the things which exist from the beginning of time.
This One is “the Alpha and the Omega,”
This One is “the beginning and the end”
—the beginning indescribable and the end incomprehensible.
This One is the Christ.
This One is the King.
This One is Jesus.
This One is the Leader.
This One is the Lord.
This One is the One who rose from the dead.
This One is the One sitting on the right hand of the Father.
He bears the Father and is borne by the Father.
“To Him be the glory and the power forever. Amen.”

Melito Bishop of Sardis, translated and quoted by James White in his book, The Forgotten Trinity.

(H/T: Awakening Grace)

Regardless of what the final product demonstrates, we really do spend quite a bit of time on sermon prep at SAMP. Part of our prep includes a Thursday morning all-staff walk-through (varying perspectives are offered, questions of clarity are asked, general discussion of the biblical text and your exegesis takes place) of your Bible study and thoughts about the text and where you think you’re headed with the sermon. It’s one of my favorite parts of the preparation process.

I recently found this this helpful article by Rich Nathan on the matter. Rich is one of my favorite preachers and is the Sr. Pastor of the Columbus Vineyard in Columbus, Ohio. He’s also a repeat New Wine UK speaker.

Rich writes:

We need to figure out, as preachers, what people’s primary problem is. The difficulty that I have with much contemporary evangelical preaching is that it seems to assume that people’s primary problem is a lack of social skills (therefore, practical “how-to” messages are what is needed) or that people’s primary problem is emotional/psychological (therefore, people need some sort of cathartic experience). It is clear, at least in Jesus’ mind, that people’s primary problem is that they don’t know God (John 15:21, 16:3, etc.) and don’t understand His rule and reign in their lives. I like J.I. Packer’s old distinction between knowing about God and knowing God. Most church people know about God, so they think they can move beyond “God talk”- that their deepest need is helpful tips on living life better. But the preacher should be the one person in the community who understands that people’s deepest need is to know God.

Read the rest.

A lot of talk lately about the end of all things. Alistair Begg offers good insight into Christ’s return in these talks. Well worth your time to listen.

Click here for sermons.

Ran across this wonderful sermon series by the Revd’s Rob Sturdy and Iain Boyd a few weeks ago when Jacqui, the boys and I dropped in on them one Sunday morning during a little pre-Easter holiday. Listen to them all. Solid, biblical, classically Anglican and a corrective to the fluffy sentimentalism masquerading as theology.

Find them here.

My Sheep Hear My Voice from St. Andrew's Church on Vimeo.

Having problems viewing the video in a news reader? View it at TreadingGrain.com.

One of my favorite J John clips

Classic.
Favorite quote: “By the time we get to the New Testament God has it all figured out. Jesus it a total sweetheart. He holds lambs, he feathers his hair, he’s a real sweetie-pie . . . . Did Jesus ever get angry?”