Hey Preacher, Love the Word(s)

On By Dave MallinakIn Pastors, Preaching and Teaching, Wordsmithing1 Comment

Carpenters work with nails and screws and lumber. Plumbers work with pipe. Electricians work with wire. Preachers work with words. They aren’t the only ones to do this, of course. Carpenters work with words, too. So do electricians, lawyers, doctors, bureaucrats, and auto mechanics. Words are the currency of culture.

But preachers particularly work with words. Words are the raw material for sermons. With words, the gospel is preached, and men repent and believe.

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. (I Peter 1:23-25)

Auto mechanics study engines and tools. Doctors study the human body and medicines. Preachers must know the Word. But knowing the Word requires a knowledge of words. If you love the Word, it is only natural that you would love words. Words are your craft. Despite the inevitable sneers, you are called to be a wordsmith.

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Preaching, Proof, and Binding the Conscience

On By Dave MallinakIn Pastors, Preaching and Teaching1 Comment

The great design and intention of the office of a Christian preacher (is) to restore the throne and dominion of God in the souls of men. (Cotton Mather)

To preach is to prove, and to prove is to bind the conscience. Every sermon sets forth the certainty of the things of Scripture and calls the people to believe and do what the Bible says. Or maybe I should say that every sermon should do this. We don’t need to ask whether the preacher will bind the conscience, but how he will bind it and what truth he will preach as binding on the conscience.

But that raises a myriad of questions: What is proof? What kind of certainty do we look for? What types of proofs should we use? Do emotional proofs count? Should the church be bound by every opinion the pastor holds? Is proof “beyond a reasonable doubt” or “beyond a shadow of a doubt?”

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The Art of Punchy Preaching

On By Dave MallinakIn Independent Baptists, Pastors, Preaching and Teaching1 Comment

The words of wise men are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools. (Ecclesiastes 9:17)

You might not think of Jordan Peterson as an entertainer. His events involve a lecture that lasts an hour and a half to two hours. He isn’t bombastic or edgy but deeply philosophical. If you watch one of these online, you’ll notice the rapt attention that his audience gives him – so quiet, if someone scratches their head, you can hear the dandruff fall. If you wish to attend one of his events, be prepared to shell out a minimum of $65. If you want to sit up close, the price will be closer to $150. This coming Friday, you can hear him in Nashville. There are less than 1,000 seats left in the 20,000-seat Bridgestone Arena. Or you could wait until next week and attend his show at the ~6,000-seat Radio City Music Hall. You’ll pay about $112 for a seat, but you’ll need to hurry – there are about 200 seats left.

Perhaps we could dismiss this as the product of fallen man seeking a saving answer to our depravity through moralistic philosophy. Preachers might struggle to fill an arena if they gave the seats away for free. Even the mega-churches tend to draw them in with music, then slip in a short, entertaining talk that some might identify as a “sermon.”

My point is not that preachers should try to be Jordan Peterson. The man is highly skilled at walking along the cliff’s edge of godless philosophy without slipping into Biblical Christianity. I mean to point out how manifestly false it is that you can’t hold an audience’s attention unless you include lots of bling and keep the sermon to a half hour. People will listen if you have something to say.

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The Science of Punchy Preaching

On By Dave MallinakIn Enjoying God, Pastors, Preaching and Teaching2 Comments

There is no particular advantage to being seriously unreadable. The same can be said for preachers. Don’t preach sermons nobody wants to hear. As I see it, preaching has two priorities: to faithfully proclaim the message of Scripture and to be heard by God’s people. Or, put another way, the preacher aims to provide good food which the people are glad to eat. Good food cooked well is appetizing, even if you aren’t hungry. Let the cook work her magic, and the hungry will be fed.

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Topical Opinionating

On By Dave MallinakIn Expository, Independent Baptists, Pastors, Preaching and Teaching

I’m not opposed to topical preaching per se. I think there is a case for it. The sermons recorded in the New Testament seem more topical than expository to me. For example, on the day of Pentecost, Peter argued as his thesis that the miracle the people were witnessing was not the product of drunkenness but a fulfillment of Joel’s prophesy in Joel 2:28-32. Peter brought in Psalm 16:8-11 as a supporting witness. The Sanhedrin charged Stephen with speaking “blasphemous words against ‘this holy place’ (the Temple) and the law: For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us” (Acts 6:13-14). Stephen answered by rehearsing the whole history of Moses and the Temple with this conclusion:

Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet, Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest? Hath not my hand made all these things? (Acts 7:48-50)

His conclusion patches together parts of Solomon’s dedication of the Temple (I Kings 8:27), an allusion to Psalm 11:4, Michaiah’s warning to King Jehoshaphat (I Kings 19:22), and every Old Testament passage that declares God the creator of all things (Ex 20:11; Ps 33:6-9; 50:9-12; 146:5-6; Isa 40:28; 44:24; 45:7-8,12; Jer 10:11; 32:17).

In the Pisidian Antioch synagogue (Acts 13:14-41), Paul preached that “Of this man’s (David’s) seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus” (23). As proof, he rehearsed the ministry of John the Baptist (24-25), the history of their dealings with Jesus (26-31), and showed from the Old Testament the truth of the claim that “the promise which was made unto the fathers (that “to you is the word of this salvation sent” – v. 26), God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again” (32-33). His proofs are taken from the second Psalm, the Davidic Covenant (2 Samuel 7:14-16; Psalm 89:2-4), Psalm 16:10, and the historic contrast between David (who saw corruption) and Jesus of Nazareth (who didn’t). He then repeats the warning of Habakuk 1:5, calling the Jews to repent or perish.

We could continue. Paul’s most famous sermon, which he delivered to the gathered philosophers on Mars’ Hill, includes a handful of Old Testament allusions but does not expound any particular text of Scripture.

At a minimum, New Testament sermon samples allow for the occasional topical sermon. I would point out that the sermons recorded in Acts are given in defense of the gospel, primarily to the Jews but also to the Gentiles (on Mars’ Hill). Preaching to the gathered body of Christ in the New Testament church should mainly focus on expounding the whole of Scripture, “line upon line, precept upon precept.” There is a place for “comparing Scripture with Scripture,” of course, but that should be done to give a thorough presentation of the passage.

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The Danger of Allegorizing

On By Dave MallinakIn Expository, Pastors, Preaching and Teaching4 Comments

If I were a betting man, I would give two-to-one odds on my annual salary that you’ve heard at least one sermon on David and Goliath where the preacher preached that you too can slay your giants.

David and Goliath might be the most frequently allegorized passage in the Bible. It has been used (and abused) until we almost can’t think of it any other way. I was with a group of fellow pastors a few years ago, and I commented that we tend to make Bible stories about ourselves instead of Christ or instead of seeing why God gave us that story. I gave the story of David and Goliath as a case in point. One of my fellow pastors immediately objected to the notion that the story of David and Goliath might be about Jesus. “That’s allegorizing,” he said. I asked him how it is allegorizing to make it about Jesus but not allegorizing to make it about me?

To allegorize is to interpret symbolically. When we allegorize a passage, we look for hidden spiritual meanings that transcend the text’s literal meaning. “Commentators who use allegory deserve high marks for creativity but low marks for approaching the biblical account as literature.” (Haddon Robinson, Biblical Preaching, 59)

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Expository Preaching 101

On By Dave MallinakIn Expository, Preaching and Teaching3 Comments

The great design and intention of the office of a Christian preacher (is) to restore the throne and dominion of God in the souls of men. (Cotton Mather)

So, what exactly is expository preaching? Among Independent Baptists, expository preaching is greatly derided and ridiculed. Most consider it to be about two degrees north of dead. I often hear it treated as if every sermon were another episode in deep-sea diving. People fear they’ll run out of oxygen before they resurface. In general, expository preaching is thought to have the same value as a wet blanket – good at extinguishing whatever fire and vigor a church has left in it.

Haddon Robinson described preaching as “a living interaction involving God, the preacher, and the congregation.” He offered this working definition of expository preaching.

Expository preaching is the communication of a biblical concept, derived from and transmitted through a historical, grammatical, and literary study of a passage in its context, which the Holy Spirit first applies to the personality and experience of the preacher, then through the preacher, applies to the hearers. (Biblical Preaching: The Development and Delivery of Expository Messages, p. 5)

Expository preaching operates on the assumption that the Bible comes from one mind and delivers one message. Every passage of Scripture is part of God’s entire message to mankind. And every passage of Scripture contributes an essential part of that message. So, when examining any passage of the Bible, expository preaching seeks to uncover and proclaim the message a loving, heavenly Father has for His children.

Things like “zeal,” “fire,” and “passion” can be faked. Many preachers function by ranting and raving and consider yelling and screaming essential elements of the sermon. Their passion buckets are full, but their sermon mostly lacks substance. They are like a dry thunderstorm on a hot summer day – full of noise but no refreshing rain.

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That Ain’t Expository Preaching

On By Dave MallinakIn Expository, Issues Facing the Church, Pastors, Preaching and Teaching

Expository preaching gets a bad rap nowadays. The blame for it can’t fall entirely on those who lampoon it and draw cute caricatures. Some blame belongs to those who think they preach expository sermons but don’t. And some of the responsibility rests squarely on the shoulders of expository preachers.

Orthocrusty is hard to defend, no matter what style it uses. God didn’t call preachers to be “bland leaders of the bland.” Regardless of your style, if your preaching is as dry as cracker juice, you aren’t preaching. Philips Brooks said preaching has “two essential elements: truth and personality.” Dr. A.E. Garvie added, “Preaching is not merely a communication of knowledge. As it exercises the whole personality of the preacher, so it is addressed to the whole personality of the hearer as a moral and religious subject.” [1]

Photo by Greg Gulik on Pexels.com

Preaching that lacks Scriptural content isn’t preaching, nor is preaching that lacks personality. If expository preaching has a bad reputation in some circles, blame it on the tendency to bake the sermon for an hour at 425o, run it through the microwave, leave it out in the sun, and set it under a heat lamp until it is thoroughly dehydrated. A sermon worth preaching won’t much resemble the Sahara in the dry season.

But the fault in dry preaching isn’t the Word preached or the style of preaching. The fault is in the preacher, who loved his study more than his people, who gets more joy in saying what he knows than in communicating truth. A change of style won’t likely fix that.

Many believe topical preaching is livelier, though more shallow, than expository preaching. Some see it as a necessary trade-off. And, all things being equal, it is easier to rant and rave when we have nothing to say, and it might be more essential. Shallow preaching becomes a performing art.

But I am for expository preaching. I decided to preach this way when God put me in the ministry, and I have tried to learn the craft over these many years. A good friend of mine made this remark, which I wholeheartedly endorse:

Expositional preaching should be thought of as an “entry point” to preaching. A preacher must know how to do that before he should move on to other styles. The process shapes the way you think…even when not preaching that exact style of sermon.

I’ve preached my share of forgettable messages. I’ve left the church gasping “Water!” more than once. But prefer overcooked steak to wonder bread – which retains that surprisingly moist texture long after it should have turned stale. Nothing stirs the heart quite like a preacher who has been set on fire by the text or passage he intends to preach.

That said, this particular missive aims to strip away some of the false notions of what constitutes “expository preaching.” Lord willing, we’ll come back and discuss what it is. For now, we’ll discuss what it ain’t (with apologies to Aunt Gertie, who hates that word).

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White Knights, the Cult of Nice, and Natalie Cline

On By Dave MallinakIn Hot Topics, Politics3 Comments

“Lament” became a thing when Black Lives Matter took center stage. White guys everywhere lamented their whiteness and their innate racism. We were confused by prominent white leaders (many of them evangelical pastors) confessing their unrepentant racism. That was a new thing. One well-known evangelical pastor said with a straight face, “I’m a racist. I’ll always be a racist.”

And here, I’ve always thought racism was a sin. This guy talked like racism was a skin condition. It didn’t make sense until I learned that, according to Critical Race Theory, “whiteness” means racist. Racism isn’t a sin; it is privilege – that invisible knapsack the system gave us. We aren’t supposed to repent of the racism but use our privilege to end the system. We must lament (i.e., signal that we know our privilege and wish not to have it anymore).

“Lament” has become a posture for some in Utah. I’m old enough to remember when our current Governor, preparing for his bid for the governorship, wept and cried over his previous anti-homosexual stance. We in Utah push back against the LGBTQ agenda. We recapture the ground they claimed – like the women’s locker room, women’s bathroom, and women’s sports – and then lament our victory. We feel this craven need to extend an olive branch. The dragon roars, and we deliver a fair maiden. Lament is the gutless way people express their inner conflict when they prevail.

But we aren’t playing football, Beulah. This isn’t a game. We are in a war for the heart and soul of our culture. Transgenderism is a bald-faced attempt to overthrow God’s image in man. It undermines everything good and wholesome and natural about our society. It denies one of humanity’s most glorious features – the distinctions between men and women. When we lock men out of the women’s bathroom, we’re saying, “This isn’t for you; you can’t have it.” Any decent society would protect their women this way.

The Utah Legislature passed a transgender sports bill in the 2023 session. They passed a transgender bathroom bill this session. They kicked DEI out of the universities. This is commendable and right. But of course, Equality Utah is at the losing end of the blowout as the Utah Legislature runs up the score.

Once upon a time, I was coaching a high school basketball game. We were at the business end of an absolute blowout, up by twenty at the half. I put our starters in for the first two minutes of the second half. Within thirty seconds of the second-half tip, I turned to find the opposing coach in my face, yelling about my unsportsmanlike conduct.

Perhaps this explains the Natalie Cline issue of the past couple of weeks. My blog isn’t generally Utah-focused. So, writing about a Utah-focused issue might be a bit risky. But the Natalie Cline case made national news. She sparked a firestorm, and our dispute is relevant on a national level.

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God Chose Us Before the Foundation of the World

On By Dave MallinakIn Calvinism, Expository, Gospel Conversations, Hot Topics, Issues Facing the Church

Election is a mystery. I admit it. But the Bible teaches election, so we must as well.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. (Ephesians 1:3-6)

A Few Exegetical Notes

The word “chosen” in verse 4 is the verb form of the word “elect.” Peter uses an adjective form of the same word in I Peter 1:2.

Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ…

Peter uses “elect” descriptively, emphasizing the method God uses in saving them that believe. Paul uses “chosen” as a verb, showing what God did on our behalf. Paul emphasizes the result of our salvation – that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.[1] Because God has chosen us, we are sanctified (4), adopted (5), accepted (6), redeemed and forgiven (7), and we have an inheritance (11).

Paul uses the aorist middle indicative “hath chosen.” The indicative points to the reality of the choice. God’s choice is actual, not potential. The timeless aorist tells us the choice is made for all time. The middle voice tells us that God made the choice for His sake, not ours. 

This selection of the saints in this age of grace is the act of God choosing out from among mankind, certain for Himself. These become His own, to be used for a certain purpose.[2]

The context confirms this.

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