FEATURE
J
ohn Wesley was adamant that no
matter how intense our personal
experience of Christ, Scripture
must always be the mud and sticks
that hold the edifice of preaching all
together – the first and last stops in our
search for the voice and presence of
Jesus. Scriptures are the red blood cells
of our message. They carry the oxygen
of divine presence into our lives.
Preaching is not voicing thoughts from
ancient texts. Preaching is giving voice
to God – the sound of whose voice can
break cedars, heal broken hearts, repair
relationships, transform commitments,
alter lifestyles, overturn philosophies.
The aim of preaching is not to make the
Scriptures come alive but to awaken
oneself and help one’s people come
alive to the Scriptures, to be alive to the
living story, to increase our capacity
for pleasuring in the Word, and for
embracing and experiencing Jesus.
But what voice would the Spirit have?
It’s not a propositional voice, but a
storytelling, poetic voice. That’s how
you know when Christ is in your midst
or when it’s merely the preacher.
Sometimes, at the end of a sermon,
the preacher says, ‘This is the Word
of the Lord.’ And sometimes I want to
yell,‘Not!’ The role of the preacher is
not merely to provide commentaries
on current events or even meditations
on texts. The role of the preacher is
to point prophetically to Christ in
the midst of the congregation and to
encourage people to open themselves
to fuller portions of the presence
of the Holy Spirit in their lives. In a
sense, it is waking people up to the
morning watch.
Likewise, the Holy Spirit reveals
Scripture. The disciples grasped the
meaning of a passage only after
Jesus ‘opened their minds so they
43
could understand
the Scriptures’
(Luke 24:45, NIV). The
Scriptures have authority
over the follower, and
Jesus has authority over all.
Therefore, the blood of Jesus needs
to be in the veins of every sermon.
Extracted from Giving Blood: a fresh
paradigm for preaching, Grand Rapids:
Zondervan. Used with permission.
Leonard Sweet
Leonard Sweet is an American theologian,
semiotician, church historian, pastor,
and author. Sweet currently serves
as the E. Stanley Jones Professor of
Evangelism at Drew Theological School
at Drew University in Madison, New
Jersey; and a Visiting Distinguished
Professor at George Fox University
in Portland, Oregon.
A one-day event for everyone
who preaches and believes in
the value of communicating
the word of God in a way that
leaves no one unchanged.
Keynote talk from
Leonard Sweet
Seminars - Panel discussions
Worship led by Neil Wilson
Leonard Sweet is author of more than 200
articles, 1300+ published sermons, and more
than fifty books. He is known for
communicating the gospel with a signature
bridging of the worlds of faith, academe, and
popular culture.
June 23rd 2015, Reigate Baptist Church, RH2 7LR
Tickets £25 each - entry price includes tea and coffee throughout the day and a light lunch
Book online at www.preachweb.org/preach-it
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