Deus Misereatur

I was recently huddled in a discussion group with other ministers, and – no surprise – we began talking about preaching. The conversation narrowed itself down to the way we preach each Sunday. There were some great sentiments voiced and out-loud-thinking presented, but there was also an uncertainty with regard to expositional preaching (where you preach through a passage, and deal with its content). Some of the guys started rummaging around for biblical examples or standard patterns for preaching. This got me to thinking: is there any evidence in Scripture for what we call expositional preaching? I quickly noticed that the few specific sermons recorded in Acts are predominately outside-of-church sermons. They are presentations of the Gospel in open-air (Acts 2 and 4), synagogues (Acts 13), amphitheaters (Acts 18) and courtrooms (Acts 22 and 26). The only episode we have that depicts inside-the-church preaching is Acts 20.7, “On the first day of the week, when we were gathered tog...

Jesus encourages us in Luke 11: “I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened” (Luke 11.9-10). Let us pray: Lord God, who practices steadfast love, justice and righteousness in the earth (Jeremiah 9.24): hear us as we pray for our crazy, mixed up world, where harmless bystanders and students are mowed down in classrooms and malls by gunmen, kidnapped at an early age and held in captivity for years, starved, battered, and robbed. And where governing authorities fund and protect those who abort children, cover for those who traffick in drugs and market human bondage. Bring sanity and judgment to bear, that the peoples of this land and all countries may sleep in peace and live in quietness. Lord, hear our prayer. Mighty God, as the Boy Scouts of America vote soon on whether or not to maintain their membership stan...