Preaching and Teaching from the Old Testament

Walter Kaiser Jr. has long been one of my favorite authors. This book continues that trend. I have increased the number of books in my library on preaching greatly in the last couple of years. This one went to the top of my reading list as soon as I bought it. It presents a simple yet thorough look at preaching from Old Testament texts. It is also a book that those who are not fulfill time preachers will find valuable. If you are a Sunday School teacher or Ladies' Class teacher you will find benefit in this book as well.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part is titled: The Need to Preach and Teach from the Old Testament. The second part is titled: How to Preach and Teach from the Old Testament. There are eleven chapters in the book followed by a conclusion and two appendices.

In the first section Kaiser deals with why we need to make sure that the Old Testament is heard regularly in the church and why we have discontinued its use. Kaiser makes some good arguments for using the Old Testament even though we are New Testament people. The two most powerful reasons are 1) it leads us to Jesus as the Messiah and 2) it was used by the early church authoritatively. We cannot tell the story of Jesus without the Old Testament and our congregations will not know the whole story if we preachers do not preach from it. I love preaching from the Old Testament so Kaiser's reasoning was like "preaching to the choir" for me. His discussion of why we still need the Old Testament is a valuable part of the book and will add to your own thinking.

The second section is where Kaiser offers some practical recommendations for the task of preaching and teaching. His chapters in this section deal with the different genres (narrative, wisdom, prophetic, laments, torah, praise, and apocalyptic) of the Old Testament. Each chapter is a discussion of how to identify the genre and how it functions as literature. Kaiser then takes some sample texts and shows how one might preach this particular genre.

His first appendix is a suggested worksheet for study and exegesis leading to the sermon. It could also be used for developing a class lesson for teachers. It is an excellent worksheet. His methodology is based on Haddon Robinson's work (the big idea), Charles Koller (Preaching without Notes - homiletical key word), and Lloyd Perry (similar to Koller). The worksheet is simple and will lead one through the process of preparing a sermon.

My only critique of the book involves two suggestions. One is that he didn't do a chapter on Hebrew poetry. This chapter would have aided in the chapters on prophets, laments, and praise. Poetry is quite pervasive in the prophets and obviously in the Psalms. It seems to me that you cannot do a book on preaching from the Old Testament without diving into this genre. The other critique is that he didn't spend quite enough time explaining the particulars of some of the genres. Just a little fuller explanation would have been helpful.

Once you read the book you will be blessed. If you haven't read Kaiser before, you will become a fan after reading this book. Not only does he do a good job of giving practical ideas for preaching from the Old Testament bu he also does a good job of theologizing about preaching in a postmodern and pluralistic society. He believes in the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures so his view of Scripture is solid and can be trusted. It is a good book to add to your library.

PM sermon for 6/10/07

The text this Sunday evening comes from Nehemiah 13:11. Nehemiah asks "Why is the house of God abandoned (or neglected)? He comes from the king a second time after the wall is built and dedicated only to find the high priest, Eliashib, making room in the temple for the foreigner Tobiah. Nehemiah also discovers that the Levites haven't received their portions and have gone back to their fields. The question of Nehemiah begs for a sermon but I want to make sure that I put the text in its proper context before making what some might think are obvious applications to the church.

AM sermon for 6/10/07

My lesson this Sunday continues the series in Colossians (Living Heavenly Values on Earthly Soil) with a look at 3:1-4. This text helps us to focus on things above. Since Jesus has come from heaven, has been made in the image of the invisible God, has died for us, been raised again, then we need to keep our focus on things beyond this age. Look to the age to come, look to our hope.

PM sermon for 5/20/07

This Sunday evening I'm going to do something I rarely do - preach someone else's outline and thinking. It will not be a word for word copy since I don't have a manuscript but the outline clearly comes from someone else. I heard this lesson at the Holy Land Experience in Orlando. I cannot remember the man's name but I do know that he is the chief Bible teacher at the Holy Land Experience. Although the lesson had some elements of allegory in it, it wasn't allegorical nor was it one of those "imitate this guy" type of lessons. It really focused on God's faithfulness in the man's life and how God will be faithful in ours. The text is 1Chronicles 11:22-25. I haven't decided on a title. The text is about Benaiah, one of David's valiant men. He wasn't one of the "three" but he certainly gained a name. The lesson will focus on the last part of v.22 where Benaiah goes down into a pit and kills a lion. I'm looking forward to studying this text and then seeing if my study leads me in the same direction as the speaker I heard. I hope to have more during the week.

AM sermon for 5/20/07

My lesson this coming Sunday will continue the sermon series from Colossians - Living Heavenly Values on Earthly Soil. The text will be 1:24-2:5 and the title will be "A Heavenly Ministry." I wish I had the time to divide this text up into about three lessons. I will probably focus on 1:24-29 and talk mostly about imitating Paul's ministry in trying to get the Word proclaimed. Of course that focus may change as I study the the text this week.

Public reading of Scripture

Paul wrote to Timothy (1Timothy 4:13):

Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. (NIV & TNIV)

Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching. (NASB)

Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. (ESV)

Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. (NKJV & KJV)

It is interesting to me first that the word "Scripture" doesn't appear in this text yet several translations put it in assuming that is what Paul means when he tells Timothy to devote himself to reading. Only the KJV and the NKJV leave it out. I don't have any doubt that we should assume in interpreting this text that Paul is telling Timothy to pay attention to reading the Scriptures publicly to the gathered church.

What I would like to know is why in our fellowship (Churches of Christ for those of you who may not know my background) we did not include this as one of the acts of the assembly? It seems pretty obvious to me that reading of Scripture was approved in Scripture and practiced by the early church (and even in the Old Testament). This is why lectionaries developed. I have the church where I serve now (and churches in the past) read my text for preaching just before the sermon. But I have not talked them into reading a text or text's as part of a pattern.

I have several questions for all of you who may come by.

1. Does your congregation have Scripture reading as part of your worship service apart from reading the text for preaching?
2. What pattern do you use for reading Scripture? Do you use a lectionary or some other way of choosing the text or texts to be read?
3. Was this a part of the congregation's worship service before you came? If not was it difficult for you to have them start doing it? How did you convince them they should have reading of Scripture as a regular part of the assembly?
4. How is the reading working out? Have you noticed a difference in the congregation?
5. Are you working on developing this as a part of your assembly?

AM sermon for 5/6/07

My text this Sunday AM is Colossians 1:21-23. I will be focusing on what Jesus accomplished through his cross. The focus thus will be reconciliation. I will start by looking at our alienation from God. Paul says it's an inward and outward corruption. Our minds and our deeds are evil. Evil here is defined is less than what God wants. In fact we are hostile to God because of this corruption. But God doesn't allow the fact of our alienation to get in the way of his love for us. He sends his son who through his fleshy body reconciles us to God. The focus on Jesus' body is possibly to counteract those who teach that Jesus was just a man and that when he was baptized the spirit of the Christ entered him. And when he died the spirit of the Christ left him. Wright (in his commentary on Colossians) thinks that Paul usually uses the word "flesh" for humans to emphasize their rebellion against God. So God is identifying with weak man by becoming just like weak man (minus the sin). So in the cross man's sin is condemned and reconciliation takes place.

Verse 22 suggests that once reconciliation takes place Jesus presents us as holy, without blemish, and without reproach. Reconciliation is not just for salvation but also for sanctification. We are to be set apart as the holy people of God.

Some see in verse 23 a condition - our faithfulness. We need to remember that conditions and merit are two separate ideas. The gospel is given without merit because merit is gained by Jesus Christ on the cross and in the empty tomb. The gospel is proclaimed with conditions so that we might identify with the Gospel. This verse deals with one single condition after we have entered into the body of Christ.

It is fitting that these verses follow the wonderful portrait that Paul paints of Jesus in 1:15-20. Jesus came into our world to show us the way back home. He is the only one who could reconcile us to God. He is truly the complete one.