169 - The Dilemma Between the Text and the Sermon

Reason Together

Today on RTP — Should preaching apply the text to YOUR life or should that be left to the Holy Spirit? Also, we discuss how Aristotle and Aquinas influenced today’s Christian thought. Then in the Aftershow, if the Bible were a single word, would all disagreement cease? And what in the world is “Azazel”?

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SHOW NOTES:

“He is great upon the ten toes of the beast, the four faces of the cherubim, the mystical meaning of badgers’ skins, and the typical bearings of the staves of the ark and the windows of Solomon’s temple: but the sins of business men, the temptations of the times, and the needs of the age, he scarcely ever touches upon. Such preaching reminds me of a lion engaged in mouse hunting.” — C. H. Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1955), p. 75.

"This is the approach of the preacher who carefully isolates his text from the larger Christian theological framework, exegetes with exacting detail the grammar and syntax of the text, reconstructs the historical setting and meaning of his text, and relays that to the congregation. Having exposed the historical particulars of the text, he fails to go on to any meaningful interpretation of the relevance of the text for his congregation. The sermon actually is oral exegesis, as if the historical and linguistic dimensions of the text were the crux of the sermon." source

“As you prepare your sermon you should intend that the biblical text come to expression in the lives of the hearers. This is not an addendum to the sermon; it is part of the sermon by definition (italics his). Where concretion is lacking we do not merely find a poor sermon; we find no sermon at all.” — David James Randolph, The Renewal of Preaching (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959), p. 89.

Scriptures Verses Cited: Acts 2:15; Luke 14:21; Acts 13:14-41

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