The folks at College Park Church in Indianapolis know how to throw a party. I don’t think I’ve ever spoken at a more encouraging church, and I praise God for the way the pastors set the tone for the whole church to receive the word of God with enthusiasm. It was a blessing, too, to …
Category Archives: Sermon Audio
The Best Sermon I’ve Ever Heard on Marriage
Denny Burk preached the best sermon I’ve ever heard on marriage at Kenwood Baptist Church this morning. It was prophetic, powerful, piercing, and poetic. Denny’s introduction was prophetic: We all found out last month what the President of the United States thinks about marriage. He sat down for an interview with ABC News and announced …
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Jane Austen and Jeremiah 20:7
The Lord provided for me on Saturday morning. I was preparing to preach Jeremiah 19–20, and I was really stuck on Jeremiah 20:7, which reads in the ESV, “O LORD, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger than I, and you have prevailed . . .” Some scholars say that Jeremiah …
To Zion the Streaming Nations Come
To Zion the streaming nations come, To sing the praise of what he’s done, Ransomed souls from every tribe, Clothed in white, the bloodbought bride. Come join the throng Come sing the song Come see the Lord Come hear his Word Wine, milk, richest fare, Fine white linen you will wear, Living water, come and …
God: The Merciful Judge
This past weekend it was my privilege to be in Fayetteville, AR, at University Baptist Church. I spoke on the theme of God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment: A Biblical Theology. These talks seek to summarize the Bible’s big story, highlighting the promises that generate the typological patterns. The talks are now available on UBC’s …
Hope and Change and the Promises of God
What hath Whittaker Chambers to do with “Hope and Change”? What hath communism and secular liberalism to do with the promises of God in the Bible? What do racial equality and diversity, environmentalism, peace in our time, provision for all, the hope of socialism, the goals of liberalism, and the aims of all politicians have …
Jeremiah 8:4–9:26, Understand and Know the Lord
“Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, …
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An Introduction to Biblical Theology
Saturday night, November 19, I had the privilege of doing an introduction and overview of biblical theology at Providence Baptist Church in Pasadena, TX (Houston area). It was an honor to be at the church pastored by Tommy Dahn, who with Bruce Stoney ordained me to gospel ministry back in January of 2004. You can …
Authenticity Is More Than Clothes and Coffee
In 2 Corinthians 6:1–13, Paul gives evidence of his authenticity, and it has nothing to do with connecting with the Corinthians in cultural terms. In fact, Paul’s authenticity derives from the way that he is going against cultural norms. He proclaims a message that offends cultural sensibilities as it points away from worldly advantages to …
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Jeremiah 7: Indictment of Unrepentant Israel (with some temple typology)
As I indicated in a previous post, it seems that Jeremiah 1:18–19 and Jeremiah 6:27–30 are bracketing Jeremiah 2–6 as a unit in which there is a progression from Israel’s sin to Israel’s rejection for their refusal to repent. This would place Jeremiah 7 at a strategic juncture introducing the next section of the book …
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Jeremiah 6: Refined in Vain and Rejected
Adolph Schlatter said of Friedrich Nietzsche: The chief impression that I internalized from his lectures arose from his offensive haughtiness. He treated his listeners like despicable peons. He convinced me of the principle that to throw out love is to despoil the business of teaching—only genuine love can really educate.[1] Nietzsche believed in the superman, …
Jeremiah 5: The Refusal to Repent
In an earlier post I suggested some ways to determine how Jeremiah has structured his message: repeated words and phrases, changes in content or theme, and changes in point of view (for instance, from first person to second or third) are all indicators of turning points in Jeremiah’s presentation. In Jeremiah 5 it seems to …
Jeremiah: A Type of Christ Who Speaks for God
I’ve argued that Jeremiah was a prophet like Moses, and Jesus is the typological fulfillment of this pattern that began with Moses. Luke presents both Peter and Stephen asserting that Jesus is the prophet like Moses announced in Deuteronomy 18:15–18 (Acts 3:22–23; 7:37), and Matthew, Mark, and Luke are pointing to this in their transfiguration …
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Should Preachers Show Their Work? Or, Should Our Preaching Train People to Read the Bible?
Should our attempts to preach the Bible train people to be better readers of the Bible? I think the answer to that question is obvious. It seems like a no-brainer to me that our attempts to preach the Bible should train those who hear us to be better readers of the Bible. This has implications …
Jeremiah 3:6–4:4, Repent and Be Restored
In 1988, Jimmy Swaggart was caught with a prostitute. He was famous. On television. Known worldwide as an evangelist and preacher. He was initially suspended for three months, then the Assemblies of God suspended him for two years. When he resumed preaching after three months, the Assemblies of God defrocked him. In 1991 he was …
Jeremiah 2:1–3:5, Will You Drink Sludge or Living Water?
Imagine a wedding, with the bride standing at the doors in the back about to enter the worship hall for the ceremony. She’s dressed in her gown, and her friend Jerry is standing by one of the doors, ready to fling it open when the moment comes. Just at that moment a well dressed older …
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A Prophet Like Moses: Jeremiah 1
Derek Kidner could really write. Here are the opening paragraphs of his book on Jeremiah: “In the last decade of the longest, darkest reign in Judah’s history, two boys were born who were to be God’s gifts to a demoralized and damaged people. The reign was that of Manasseh, a half-century of deliberate reversion to …
Three Sermons on Biblical Theology: Story, Symbol, Church
Between Mark and Jeremiah, I felt led to preach three sermons on biblical theology at Kenwood. The goal was to have the Bible’s big story give us perspective for our plunge into Jeremiah’s jeremiads. I’ve noted the first two sermons, one on the Bible’s story, another on the use the biblical authors make of symbol, …
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A Separate Peace and the Symbolism of the Bible
Did you read A Separate Peace by John Knowles? Two friends, Gene and Phineas (nicknamed Finny), in a tree. Gene shakes a branch, Finny falls, breaks his leg, and the halcyon innocence of the summer ends. Previously a great athlete, Finny will never play sports again. When he finally returns to school, the other students …
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The Bible’s Sprawling, Ramshackle Narrative
Before we launch into Jeremiah, Lord willing, I’m doing three sermons on Biblical Theology at Kenwood. This past Sunday, August 21, 2011, it was my privilege to preach “A Story of Stories: The Bible’s Sprawling, Ramshackle Narrative.” The title of the sermon comes from a phrase used by David Steinmetz in an essay about the …
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