My first dictum of preaching is "You preach the Text to your Congregation". I can't find where I wrote on that before - it's somewhere. But I have formulated a second dictum of preaching:
"Good preaching is typological, because what Jesus does for one is typical of what He does for all."
While from our perspective they are wild, unexpected, and miraculous, what Jesus does in the Gospels is not extraordinary for Him. These things that we see Jesus doing are things that are typical - the things that He does all the time. Does He heal the deaf mute? Of course He does - He is the Word by which all things were created, of course He will be about the business of recreating.
And as such, the example of what Jesus has done for this deaf man can be applied to you - for this is what Jesus does. He restores creation - and so He has come to restore you, to forgive your sins and raise you to life everlasting.
What we see happen to others in the Scriptures is the reality of what happens to us - for what Christ came to do for them, He still comes and does for us.
Let your preaching show this, and it will be solid preaching.
2 comments:
Amen and amen. Jesus replied, "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. (Matt 11)
When preaching is right, the spiritually blind see their savior saving, the spiritually lame are lifted on wings like eagles, those who have been afflicted with spiritual disease (sin)are given the cure and all who are spiritually dead and poor are raised and given life.
Who might those be? You and I of course.
Sorry for the long post - one last thing I've noticed. Some might say that to look for these things 'spiritually' is a cop out. I say that to insist on physical miracles for evidence of Jesus' power is severely limiting. When Jesus says 'which is easier to say, you're sins are forgiven or get up and walk?' it is a GREAT question! From a strictly human perspective - the first as it requires no evidence. From God's perspective, the latter - as it would require the death of the lamb vs. a simple 'get up and walk.' Man I love that text...
yes, yes. Scripture is not simple the record of things done in the past, but God's living voice to us now. Of course, if those things weren't actually done in the past there wouldn't be anything to say now, but that's a different point.
Oh, and what Jesus did started well before his conception. It stretches back all the way to creation as John, the evangelist, is quick to point out. That's why OT preaching is also typological. Because the activity of God 1000 years BC is continued/completed in Jesus, not obliterated or reversed.
George
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