In case you may study to evangelise from one man specifically, whom would you select? Some might wish to point out massive names of right now. Others could also be entranced by nice preachers of the previous, the names that echo by historical past. Maybe, nearer to house, a pricey mentor left a selected imprint upon us.
However what concerning the apostles, males filled with the Holy Spirit, and their impressed sermons recorded in Scripture? Ought to we not study from them first? In a pleasant e book referred to as Peter: Eyewitness of His Majesty, my good friend Ted Donnelly speaks of Peter as a disciple, as a preacher, and as a pastor. The e book is an impressive therapy of this servant of Christ. Some years earlier than my good friend himself handed into Christ’s presence, he preached on Acts 2 and recognized among the options of Peter’s preaching. I gladly acknowledge my debt in what follows.
What, then, can the file of apostolic preaching educate us? What classes would possibly we study to assist us declare the entire counsel of God? Turning to Peter’s sermon at Pentecost (Acts 2:14–40), let me recommend seven options of apostolic preaching that we will and will pursue.
Peter manifestly preaches within the right here and now, starting with the placing assertion concerning the disciples’ sobriety (Acts 2:15). Peter preaches an instantly related sermon as a person who is aware of the place and when he speaks, and with whom. His sermon proceeds from an actual individual and is to, about, and for actual folks — these in Jerusalem who crucified the Lord of glory. He focuses on a very powerful issues — salvation from sin by religion within the Christ who died and rose. The sermon is earthy, preached by a dying man to dying males, sure, but additionally by a dwelling man to dwelling males, concerning the man who lived, died, and lives once more eternally.
Will we preach with the identical sense of immediacy, with the identical sense of actuality? Do our messages appear to be historical past lectures, or are folks made to really feel that this sermon pours from a gift me to a gift you?
2. Scriptural and Affordable
Peter strikes from rationalization to exposition to software to persuasion. He takes account of his hearers’ expertise, however he makes use of Scripture to interpret, clarify, and ensure it (as in 2 Peter 1:19). Coping with what his congregation is aware of, sees, and hears, he turns to Joel 2 to elucidate the work of the Spirit, to Psalm 16 to emphasise the fact of the resurrection, to Psalm 110 to attach the ascension of Christ with the grant of the Spirit.
Time and again, Peter makes the purpose, “This is that! That’s what it says, and that is what it means.” He’s preaching like Christ, using what I name an apostolic hermeneutic, which Christ patterned for his disciples in Luke 24:27 and 44–48. Does our preaching relaxation in and depend upon the phrase of God? Are we manifestly proclaimers and explainers of divine fact, and mainly of Christ as he’s set forth in all of the Scriptures?
3. Doctrinal and Instructive
I doubt anybody has ever been requested to evangelise a distinctly Trinitarian sermon, mixing the richest insights of biblical and systematic theology, and protecting such matters as theology correct, Christology, pneumatology, prolegomena, anthropology, soteriology, sacramentology, eschatology, and ecclesiology. You would possibly take into account such a request ridiculous and even unattainable. But I recommend that Peter manages it right here!
All these notes resonate and mix at Pentecost. Peter introduces all of them naturally, accessibly, considerably, and forcefully — sermonically! Peter is a real theologian, and his sermon is the fruit of Christ’s instruction and the Spirit’s illumination. However he’s additionally a real preacher: although nicely taught, he doesn’t really feel the necessity to parade his studying. He’s neither entertaining the goats nor straining the giraffes. He’s calling and feeding the sheep, and subsequently he each is aware of and exhibits his theology appropriately. His scholarship shouldn’t be lofty and tutorial, however consecrated to avoid wasting and maintain souls by the plainest of declarations.
Are we preaching meaty or milky sermons, based on the wants of our hearers? Good preaching units forth doctrine generally centrally, generally by the way, in order that the reality comes throughout as deep, clear, and candy to the congregation.
4. Christian and Adoring
Peter’s sermon is theologically wealthy, however it zeroes in on the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter’s sermons, like Paul’s and others recorded within the New Testomony, are filled with the Lord Jesus, overflowing with treasured fact regarding him. The Pentecost sermon is ardently and urgently Christ-centered, Christ-focused, Christ-exalting. The prophets spoke of him; God despatched him; we belief him. He who’s God the Son can be recognized as true man, the promised man, the despatched man, the crucified man, the risen man, the ascended man, the exalted man, the gracious man, the saving man.
“Have we preached, will we preach, a gospel that’s complete and holy, free and full, candy and saving?”
Keep in mind, Peter is preaching to individuals who knew the Previous Testomony and amongst whom Jesus of Nazareth had bodily walked. In the event that they wanted such instruction, how rather more do hearers right now? Folks have no idea, and even find out about, Jesus of Nazareth. They want males who’re pressing and ardent to inform them of the Savior. Are we as preachers going out to inform folks about Jesus Christ? Are we looking forward to folks to listen to of him, or can we not imagine that the preaching of Christ will show God’s technique of bringing sinners to religion?
5. Utilized and Direct
“Males and brothers,” stated Peter, “Let me converse freely . . .” (Acts 2:29 NKJV). And he meant it! Learn by the sermon once more. Peter is obvious, open, daring, and brave. He appears to be like his congregation within the eye and speaks to them. He speaks with startling bluntness: “This Jesus, delivered up based on the particular plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the fingers of lawless males. . . . Let all the home of Israel subsequently know for sure that God has made him each Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:23, 36).
This isn’t hectoring speech; neither is it unrighteously aggressive. We should always anticipate the phrase of God to dig, to press, to probe, to hassle the soul, to chop to the center. When the Spirit brings it house, hearers cry out, “What we could do?” (Acts 2:37). The seraphic Samuel Pearce pleaded,
Give me the preacher who opens the folds of my coronary heart; who accuses me, convicts me, and condemns me earlier than God; who loves my soul too nicely to undergo me to go on in sin, unreproved, by worry of giving me offence; who attracts the road with accuracy, between the delusions of fancy, and the impressions of grace; who pursues me from one hiding place to a different, till I’m pushed from each refuge of lies; who offers me no relaxation till he sees me, with unfeigned penitence, trembling on the ft of Jesus; after which, and never until then, soothes my anguish, wipes away my tears, and comforts me with the cordials of grace.
Will we anticipate such preaching? If crucial, will we search it out? Will we as preachers specific fact instantly, or can we fudge and shave, blunting the sting of the Jerusalem blade? Will we anticipate and want our preaching to impress the query, “What we could do?” or have we grow to be consultants in turning apart the thrust of divine fact?
6. Affectionate and Gracious
Peter’s most direct speech doesn’t lack love. He speaks to them and towards them, for them (Acts 2:14, 21–22, 29, 38–39). He holds again neither the horror of sin nor the hope of salvation. These final days are gospel days! The excellent news is being proclaimed to all: repent and imagine in Christ, and also you shall be saved. (Matthew Henry delightfully calls this provide “a plank after shipwreck.”) Then be baptized, figuring out your self with the Jesus of Scripture, the Christ from Nazareth. Forgiveness will likely be granted, and the Holy Spirit, who’s God himself, will dwell in you to purify you, to bless you, to maintain you.
Do we all know the way to mix the straight and the candy? Have we discovered, below God, to wound and to bind up? Do we all know and love the folks earlier than us and round us, and so converse? Have we preached, will we preach, a gospel that’s complete and holy, free and full, candy and saving? Have we obtained the Jesus who brings salvation, and can we delight to inform others of him?
7. Blessed and Fruitful
Peter’s sermon strikes house laborious and deep. These minimize to the center cry out, “Brothers, what we could do?” And shortly after, “those that obtained his phrase had been baptized, and there have been added that day about three thousand souls” (Acts 2:37, 41). Solemnity and scorn gave method to critical concern, and the Lord granted salvation to hundreds. This sermon, preached by a person filled with the Holy Spirit, instructed by the Savior and illuminated by the Helper, is a finishing up of the Nice Fee. As Peter obeys the command of Christ, three thousand obtain the phrase, are baptized, and so are added to the variety of the believers (maybe greater than Christ noticed in all the times of humiliation, if we so learn John 14:12).
Will we not have the identical gospel? Will we not have the identical Savior? Will we not have the identical Spirit? Can we not preach related sermons? Can we not pray for and anticipate related outcomes? I imply not a lot the nice numbers (although neither do I dismiss them), however relatively the identical religious actuality and heavenly pressure?
Here’s a mannequin for actually apostolic preaching, an instance for many who observe within the religion and labor of the apostles. We aren’t apostles, however we will want extra of the apostolic spirit. In that sense, we will and will search to evangelise apostolic sermons, not as chilly constructs based on some dry normal, however because the merchandise of burning hearts taken up with Christ and wanting, above all issues, the glory of God in him, and the everlasting good of all those that hear.
