Monday, August 04, 2008

Dennis E. Johnson on Apostolic Preaching

I'm nearly finished reading Dennis E. Johnson's Him We Proclaim, one of the meatiest and most clarifying books I've ever read. There's a little nugget on page 331, where Johnson states that even when sermons are based on New Testament passages, they are not necessarily "apostolic." He defines that term with these four elements:
  • Christ-centered
  • attentive to redemptive history
  • grace-driven
  • missiologically articulated
I suspect that those four descriptors, taken together, make for about as perfect a definition of real preaching as one will ever find.

Me, I heard a sermon yesterday about how if you keep on sowing you will eventually reap (based on Galatians 6:7-10), so don't stop sowing sowing sowing, people! It was not remotely Christ-centered, not the least attentive to redemptive history, driven only by the expectation of one day "reaping," and only vaguely missiologically articulated. I left quietly when I couldn't take any more of it.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

keep following Jesus, my brother.

His Love and Grace to you.

Anonymous said...

Sounds a lot like the "gospel centered" preaching I hear Graeme Goldsworthy and others like him talking about. I wonder if it's based on the same reasons but just called by a different name.

The sermon I heard was seriously lacking in any Gospel content. In fact, my better half just posted on it.

Bob Spencer said...

Nancy, as always your words are deeply appreciated. Brian, Johnson quotes Goldsworthy a lot. Their definitely tracking the same prey!