Gary Millar: Liveblog #5

Deuteronomy 30:1-14

It's a big chiasm, and it's all centred around v6. It's the big, big thing. This is also the conclusion of the sermon (While 30:15 to the end of the chapter is the conclusion to the book)

Verses 11-14 are actually happening not on the day Moses is speaking this sermon, but happens when Yhwh circumcises their hearts.

In that time, the word will be in our mouths, and close to us. This helps make much greater sense of the passage.

aha! #2

So, picking up on my previous post, I've realised that I didn't use Paul's sermon well as the basis for my gospel appeal.

Though perhaps with reasonable excuse, as Nathan graciously said, I didn't exegete the things about God's imminence in Acts 17 sufficiently. There is so much in there about both being created for God and His desire to be known by us. Coupled to this Paul's appeal to repent of ignorance and come to know God truly, there's great beauty in the grace of God as expressed here.

Who cares? Well, I think the problem is that my talk's appeal for response was primarily based on not being found to be opposing God. Now this is a good motivation, but would have been far stronger when coupled with the appeal of the God who created me to know him and wants all people everywhere to know him.

Hmm... I'd have to do some more thinking if I was going to really develop this one properly. Ideally, I'd have preached the passage in 2 or 3 talks. We do what we can.

Aha!

I've worked out what was wrong with my sermon on Sunday.

The gospel wasn't worked out through the text rightly. Details to follow.

Gary Millar: Liveblog #4

There are 2 questions which are slightly different.

1. How does the text relate to Jesus?
2. How do I preach the gospel through this text?

They're not the same. Gary was saying that the first is somewhat academic, while the second is far more related to how a listener is going to treat their kids when they get home from church.

Have I pointed people to what God has done in Christ as the solution to all our problems.

Have I pushed people to throw themselves upon God for mercy, or just told them to try harder.

You haven't preached the gospel if the essence of the message is 'be like', then you haven't preached the gospel.

Have we pushed people to the grace that does all the work of bringing about godliness?

Recover the rhetorical impact of the text

We must help the audience feel what the text is doing, not just conveying the intellectual content.

We must give the people a reason to listen. Don't assume that they'll listen just because they've shown up at church. The first 90 seconds is the most important part. We must justify to the person walking in off the street why they ought to listen.

We must connect with people. Speak to the people who are actually in front of you, must know who they are.

Gary Millar: Liveblog #3

Christ centred preaching is not about trying to find a reference to Jesus in every text, but to show how the text stands in relation to Christ.

Boring preaching is a sin. Why? Because your audience is made to feel guilty. They feel guilty for not being as excited about the gospel as they should be. They feel the boredom is their fault.

7 Ways of moving to Jesus from the text:

1. Follow the plan (Here's the first bit of the plan, here's where God followed on in order to get to Jesus) (follow the story. Take the scenic route. God did this, then this, then this, then this)
2. Expose the problem
3. Explain the category - Leviticus is there to explain how sacrifice works.
4. Highlight the attribute. (demonstrate something of God)
5. Trace the fulfillment. (More like Star Trek than 1, beam up at promise and beam back in at fulfillment.)
6. Focus on the action ("this is what God does" - Like the attribute one, but with actions)
7. Point out the consequences. (If you are x to God, then y will happen)

Gary Millar: Liveblog #2

hehehe...

The two Israelites weren't the best spies ever. They'd never been in a city! Most likely, they're walking around the city wide-eyed and pointing, strangely enough ending up in the house of a prostitute... Innocently... Right...

Excellent spying. Really. I wonder how Jericho's rulers knew exactly which house to go to when they decided to get a hold of them...

Rahab's the only one who speaks about Yahweh.

Gary Millar: Liveblog #1

Basic convictions about Bible teaching.

1. When we preach rightly, it is God speaking
2. Preaching is not simply the conveying of information, but with the purpose of changing people.
3. That last point he massively ties in with spending a lot of time in the Biblical text. For the preacher/teacher mainly, I think.
4. Must preach within a biblical theological framework. (wrt death and resurrection of Christ, salvation history, etc)
5. Must preach the gospel.