The Field's Musings

By Tim Keller As people adore Christ they will apply Christ. The best way to lead people to worship is to worship Christ yourself during the sermon. Whitefield agreed to having his sermons printed but said ‘you’ll never get the thunder’. The sermon is what you write Preaching is the active delivery of the preaching The spiritual quality and character of the person shines through during preaching more than the sermon itself. Keep in your mind the differences between graces and gifts. You can be using gifts without being godly. The fruit of the Spirit is character change. The gifts of the Spirit are skills or abilities. People often assume that skill or gifts indicates Spiritual gifts with spiritual fruit is like a tyre without air. When you’re far from God Traditions: Sacramental: meeting God in the sacraments and traditions Evangelical: meeting God in your quiet times Charismatic: emphasis on meeting God in corporate worship The Puritans were bigger on experiencing God compared with ot...

By Ed Clowney Luke 17 We see in this passage the return of praise, which is the glory of faith showing the glory of grace. The lepers call to Jesus from afar off: ‘Jesus, Master have mercy on us’. Faith hears the word of Jesus. Jesus came to gain the worship of the unclean- He wants the Lepers for Himself. He came to be the servant who would receive the punishment for our sin. He paid the price of our uncleanness so that we would become clean. The disciples ask about receiving faith and Jesus responds by speaking about the obedience of praise. The others lepers didn’t show hear-obedience to the master. They were doing exactly what they were told to do without praise in their hearts. If faith is to be increased it must show the fruit of praise. *** When preaching narratives make sure you weave doctrine around the story. The Wisdom Narratives The meekness of wisdom- ‘learn of me’, ‘let your gentleness be known to all men’. Prov 8- wisdom personified produces joy. The meditation for wisdo...

By Tim Keller The goal of the sermon is to get people to worship. A sermon isn’t a sermon until you call people to adore Christ. A sermon is a lecture when Christ is not adored. Willow Creek approach: ‘You can evangelise non-Christians or edify Christians’ Conservative approach: ‘All people need to worship through the same material’ If you preach Christ you’ll e evangelising and edifying at the same time. Post-modern people like to know how Christianity works. PM people try on Christianity as a dress. They’ll try it out to see if it works. You can only change a person’s life by changing what they worship and how they worship. Text, Context and Subtext Be clear about the text, context and subtext 1) The text: know what the text is saying. Be clear on theology 2) The context: know how to present the text to the people 3) The subtext: have the right heart for the text (Christ) and the right heart for the context (people) 4 types of subtext 1) Social Reinforcement The purpo...

By Edmund Clowney Three divisions made in the OT: counsel, law, prophecy- Ezek 7:26, Jer 18:18 Wisdom: man through YHWH must use knowledge to solve lifes problems The wise man is the knowledgeable man Proverbs is the documentation of instruction against folly 1 Kings 4 helps us to understand the view of wisdom in Israel. Meditation on the law brings: 1) Praise Rejoicing in God’s revelation 2) Wisdom Reflection on how the teaching of scripture applies to life Wisdom is concerned firstly with knowing the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the knowledge of God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of understanding. Paul’s prayer is for a Spirit and revelation in the knowledge of Him (Eph 1:17). Wisdom is the key to understanding the wisdom of the Lord in Paul’s theology. The gift of wisdom enables us to analyse scripture and apply it properly to a situation. Most parallels in the Psalms and wisdom literature are not to be equated. Older men need to disciple younger men in wisdom. The theology...

By Edmund Clowney The Psalms are the praises of the redeemed centred on Christ. A song is a covenant witness. In Deut 31:19 God gives to His people the songs they are to sing. Songs are not simply a response to God but a God-given ordination. The people were to memorise them. Jesus is presented as the living Christ singing in the midst of the congregation (Hebrews 2 quoting Psalm 22:22). We sing with Jesus our singing saviour. Structure of Psalm 22 1-2 the cry of lamentation 3-5 the confession of trust 6-8 another lamentation 9-11 another confession of trust 12-18 another lamentation 19-21 cry for deliverance 22-24 confession of deliverance 25-31 praise for deliverance The suffering servant signs from the depths to the heights In Psalms 2 and 24 the royal King sings. The song of Christ is seen as the song among the Gentiles (Rom 15:9). Jesus signs a missionary song among the nations (Psalm 96). The NT authors gained their theology from the OT. They were people absorbed in OT doctrine. ...

By Tim Keller How do you argue for the authority of the Bible? Traditional way: Look at fulfilled prophecy of the OT. Better contemporary way: 1) Do you want a personal relationship with God? 2) You can’t have a personal with God unless you accept the authority of the Bible 3) Why? Because having a personal relationship with being outraged sometimes. You must expect the Bible to offend. Unless you accept the complete authority of the Bible God can’t contradict you or differ with you. The strategy used is presupposition apologetics. Affirm what they affirm and then show them that How do you argue for the reality Hell? Post-modernist: I don’t believe God would send anyone to Hell. Christian: What did it cost your God to love us and embrace us? It cost my God pain, agony and torment to bring me near to Him. In your effort to make God more loving you’ve actually made God less loving by removing Hell from your worldview. If punishment doesn’t exist as a result of God’s justic...

By Tim Keller Methods for writing application 1) Discipline who you spend time with The application of a sermon should change in style depending on the people who are hearing the sermon. You tend to preach to the people who are most on your heart. Some evangelical leaders preach sermons for other evangelical preachers because they are immersed in the thinking of the culture of evangelical leaders. Deliberately diversify your people context. Speak to non-Christians. Understand how they think, in what categories? Address the needs of the culture in sermons. Entice Christians to bring non-Christians by preaching to non-Christians using their language and culture. Preach to people who aren’t in the room. Preach like this ‘God is wrathful God who is angry at sin. I know some of you find that hard to understand but consider this….’ The easiest way to think about the concerns of non-Christians is to read content written by people who disagree with you. The best way to do this is by reading ma...

By Edmund Clowney We want to preach the law in a gospel context. Galatians and Romans do this. We need to recognise: 1) The condemnation of the law-Gal 3:13-14 The promise has been fulfilled, it goes out to the Gentiles, and is achieved by faith. Why the law (v19)? It was added because of transgressions until the seed comes. The law bars the way of life because it condemns us because of our sin. The law is not the final revelation of God. 2) We can’t keep the law The law shoes us that we can’t do it and even increases our trespasses (Rom 5:20). The law stirs the rebellion of sin (Rom 7:7-8). Sin works through the commandment to produce sin. The law brings damnation and the knowledge of sin. 3) The law drives us to Christ- Gal 3:24 The law acts as a tutor to Christ so that we can be justified by faith. 4) The law is renewed in Christ Christ provides for us the righteousness of God, the complete fulfilment of the law. Christ fulfils the law and renews it by expanding it. Luke 20:20-26 Hi...

By Edmund Clowney How to develop a text using the Poythress method: 1) Static- the meaning of the text 2) Dynamic- the way in which the text describes a speaker, message and a recipient 3) Relations- how the elements of the text to other portions of scripture

By Tim Keller 3 macro-Strategies for applying a text 1) Critique religion as well as irreligion (read notes from part one) 2) Aim at heart motives as well as the outward behaviour 3) Look at the text through three application perspectives 2) Aim at heart motives as well as the outward behaviour Self-justification is the doctrine of the Pharisees. If Christ is not your righteousness something else will be. You can avoid Jesus by avoiding sin. Religion is more of a subtle enemy of the gospel than irreligion practised by the open rebellious person because religious behaviour looks like holy behaviour. Irreligious people need to be shown that they are practising self-justification. A Basic Outline for Aiming at the Heart: i) Speak about what the narrative tells us to be- what standard is the Bible setting for us? ii) Speak about how that standard is unreachable- we are all sinners who miss the mark iii) Speak about how problem is resolve...

By Tim Keller Faith in the saving work of Christ is the only tool to dismantle sin in our lives. We are sanctified by faith, not just justified by faith. 3 macro-Strategies for applying a text 1) Critique religion as well as irreligion 2) Aim at heart motives as well as the outward behaviour 3) Look at the text through three application perspectives 1) Critique religion as well as irreligion Say that the gospel is neither morality nor immorality. The gospel is the third way Religion says ‘if I work hard on biblical principles God will bless me.’ The gospel says ‘God will bless me through trusting in His Son, this gives me power to work hard at biblical principles.’ Functionally the churchman’s heart tends to religion. Reasons why this method is useful: a) Many professing Christians are not Christians b) We constantly need our practise aligned with their theology c) Some people who reject Christianity reject it because they believe it to be religion If we preach: ‘immorality bad and Chr...

By Ed Clowney Example of Narrative Preaching from Matthew 17:1-9 Christ is the one with greater authority than Moses and Elijah. God the Father affirms His authority by saying ‘hear Him’. The Father’s declaration proves the Father’s unity with Him. The Son declares the will of the Father. Moses brought to us what God said to him, Christ is the incarnate word, God’s word become flesh, He is God speaking. Christ speaks and the dead comes forth, His own sheep hear Him and they follow Him. The preacher’s task is to bring into remembrance the words that Jesus spoke. The congregation are to hear the message and hear Christ speaking through the preacher. The glory of God is made evident through Christ. Peter suggests building shelters for Jesus, Moses and Elijah thinking that this was the last feast of booths. The glory of the true tabernacle is shown at transfiguration. Christ comes to do his true work of conquest. Overcoming the Devil’s temptation whereby he offered Christ all kingdoms on t...

By Ed Clowney The individual obedience of Isaac and Jacob is portrayed through the seed of the promise leading us to Christ. There are concepts in structure that naturally flow to Christ. This is typology. The meaning is presented through its significance in symbolism. Christ speaks in parables to teach us spiritual truth through natural reality. Symbolism brings in the feel of the meaning. Symbolic language can be more effective than illustrations. A metaphor is found in a sentence and not in a word. A metaphor brings together two different worlds; two different images. Example: Amos 3:8- A lion has roared! Who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken! Who can but prophesy? The spoken word of the Lord is paralleled with the fierce roaring of a lion. We apply attributes of the familiar concept to the more abstract concept. The roaring of the lion is similar to the speaking of Yahweh. Metaphors act as a form of contextualisation. Metaphors should be used to tell Bible stories as real stor...

By Tim Keller Justification and Sanctification by Faith Alone We’re not only justified by faith- we are also sanctified by faith. We need to exhort people to faith in Christ wherever they are at! Power to live a holy life comes by faith in the cross. We shouldn’t exhort people to right living without giving revealing to them the key: faith. Sanctification is orienting yourself towards justification. We need to feed off our justification to be sanctified. Actual righteousness is produced by embracing the means by which we gained our imputed righteousness. Faith preserves us form self inflicted moralism. Idolatry by Faith Alone ‘All those who do not at all times trust God…but seek His favour in other things or in themselves is breaking the first commandment.’- Luther The first commandment is broken when you fail to believe in justification by faith. If you’re not trusting in Christ you are trusting in something else. All people sin in general. Why do we sin in any particular instance? An...

By Tim Keller Keller defines 4 ways of getting to Christ from the text organically Theme Resolution Inter-canonical themes are themes that cut across the Biblical canon, for instance the theme of Kingdom or law or grace. The theme develops and thickens as scripture progresses. Broad themes: 1) The King and the Kingdom The freedom and glory of God’s kingdom is lost when Adam and Eve sin The people throughout the OT needed a good Kingship Only the creator Himself is a satisfactory King because the problems of His people are too deep for any human King to deal with. 2) Grace and Law This theme asks the question: How can God remain holy and gracious with a rebellious people? Approaches to this theme: Conservative: God commands obedience for the receiving of every blessing Liberal: God loves everyone no matter what they do The conservative approach is exclusively set on the holiness of God while the liberal approach is only focuses on the love of God. Isaiah highlights the tension in his wr...

By Edmund Clowney In this lecture we will look at the structure of a sermon preached by Edmund called The Life of Joseph: From Pit to Palace the Lord’s Blessing through Testing based on Genesis 37. 1) God’s blessing on Joseph, the Lord was with Him Through the favour of the Father Through the dreams speaking of his future that God gave him God’s constant presence was with Joseph. This resulted in his success He was faithful in the service of all people. He was faithful to Potiphor’s officer. He was faithful to Pharaoh. Joseph gained favour in the eyes of Potiphor. Potiphor gave him authority over his state. God blessed Potiphor because Joseph was there. Wherever Joseph went blessing went. Potiphor’s wife took a liking to Joseph- this led to Joseph’s imprisonment. The officer in charge of the prison began to like Joseph. Joseph was given power to run the prison. Joseph interprets dreams successfully in the prison. There was constant success in everything he did. 2) Everything Joseph di...

By Edmund Clowney We must see scripture as a whole. When Christ met with His disciples leaving Jerusalem in Emmaus they were discouraged. Christ says that the disciples didn’t understand the whole of scripture. They didn’t understand that the concept of spiritual redemption came from the Jewish scriptures. Christ showed them that Old Testament is all about Him. The disciple’s hearts burned within them. In scripture we have one complete story with Christ being the completion of this story. We live in the time of climax. He said ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30). The Lord in His own redeeming act initiated redemptive history The Exodus was a move of liberation on God’s part. The Israelites were delivered by the power of God. God didn’t only bring them out of Egypt; He brought the people into covenant relationship and the promised land of Canaan on eagle’s wings (Exodus 19:4). In Leviticus 26 God promises to walk among His people and be their God. He promises His presence through the construc...

Lectured Tim Keller In order to prepare a good sermon the preacher should be asking: What does this text tell me about the person and work of Jesus? In preaching the preacher should be asking the people: How am I failing to rejoice in and live as if this text is true about who Jesus is? The preacher should be showing that people are poor due to their lack of faith in Christ. The aim of every sermon is to experience Christ through the text. You need to get people to adore and enjoy Christ through the text. We shouldn’t preach principles or example to live up to but re-assure people that living a holy life is derived from faith in Christ. In a lecture the aim is to transfer information. In a sermon the aim is to be get the listener to worship on the spot. Three types of questions to evaluate a sermon: 1) Was it a sound sermon? Was Jesus the climax of the text? 2) Was it practical? Was Jesus presented as the solution to spiritual problems? 3) Was there a sense of God? Was Jesus made visib...