Just some fairly random thoughts on what I’d like to see more of in my own preaching and the preaching of others…
- Thou shalt worship Christ from the pulpit. The priestly task of declaring the gospel of God (Rom 15:16) entaileth a twofold direction to the sermon. The preacher not only standeth before a congregation to declare truth, but before the Lord to worship Him. Of course ‘worship’ does not mean putting on airs – feigning the manner of a Cranmer, Spurgeon or Piper. It does mean happy and humble gratitude in the presence of Jesus. And of course this twofoldness is accomplished in one and the same task – proclaiming ‘Worthy is the Lamb.’
- Thou shalt communicate, through both content and style, a tangible sense of the newness of God’s revelation. May such phrases as these perish from our lips: ‘Of course we all knoweth do we not…’ We really do not knoweth. We need to be toldeth. Hence preaching. Therefore preach with eager and childlike enthusiasm for the surprising and always disruptive grace of God.
- Thy tone shalt be declarative and devotional.
- Thy method shalt be expositional and christocentric. (Of course expositional does not necessitate ‘verse by verse’)
- Thy fevered entreaty shalt not be ‘DO’ so much as ‘LOOK’.
- Thou shalt not apologize for the word, whether for its supposed harshness or obscurity or backwardness or unbelievability. In truth the word is capable of defending itself on all these counts.
- Thou shalt not go searching for illustrations. Thy passage no doubt has plenty of good ones of its own. Anyone that spendeth time looking for stories to ‘lighten up their talk’ must be cut off from the congregation.
- Thou shalt not go searching for jokes. There is no doubt plenty of humour in the Scriptures themselves without you searching lamepreachergags.com. Anyone found guilty of the needless and clumsy insertion of ‘a joke’ shall be stoned to death. Show no mercy.
- Thou shalt not preach that ‘Christ is God’. Thou shalt preach that God is only and always the God revealed in Christ.
- Thou shalt not lift up the Lamb because thou art supposed to but because thou canst do no other.
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I like #9. Christ does not subsist from God, but in fact is the exact representation so that when we see Him we see the Father!
I also think your point on jokes is a good one!
Nice One Glen,
particularly point 2 “surprising and disruptive grace”. Oh to know better how to expose God to the heart and the heart to God in a community that worships and witnesses with bold faith!
Keep at it.
Blessings
Marcus
how about just one?
1. Thou shalt only preach Christ and Him crucified in all the Scriptures and by extension all of creation
Thank you. Amen. I will seek to obey!
Why must I not preach that X is God, though, since he is and it is true and useful and interesting to say so from the Bible?
It’s the whole Athanasius thing: “The only system of thought into which Jesus Christ will fit is the one in which He is the starting point.”
So, quite often you’ll hear talks saying: ‘You know God? (And people nod their heads thinking of some kind of omnibeing, the god of the pub discussion or philosophy faculty). Well,’ they’ll say ‘Jesus is that God.’
‘Really?’ says the hearer. ‘Because he looks quite different…’
I’m advocating more of saying: ‘God is always the Father revealed in the Son by the Spirit. And (on the same theme) He is the LORD of the OT (not simply One who is just like Him).’
That kind of thing. But yes you can say ‘Jesus is God’ I spose, it’s just that non-christological thinking on the term ‘God’ will cause you problems down the line.
If anyone was going to provide the definitive summary of the law it was you Dev. yes indeed!
I’m serious about those jokes though. My stones are at the ready…
Thanks for commenting Marcus. I’m about to post on ‘disruptive grace’ – I think it explains *everything*.
Yes, so I have to say:
(1) Jesus is God. Jesus is like the Father.
(2) If you want to know God / what God is like, look at Jesus.
Well I guess (1) and (2) totally belong together.
So Jesus is the God who Jesus reveals God to be.
Yes, absolutemondo. Though we also distinguish Father and Son though we never separate them.
Let him without sin throw the first stone…
I thank God my gags are not like other preachers’. They are all completely awesome, utterly hilarious and totally justified. Hand me that rock…