Some true sermons are boring, and this should not be tolerated by the preacher because he stands in the most vital office on earth. To bore someone with that which is most beautiful? To tire someone’s mind with the message that is the pinnacle of wisdom?
I have experienced a share of boring preachments as have many who are reading this. I have also heard some of the most fascinating preachers including Martin Lloyd-Jones, John MacArthur, Mark Minnick, and John Piper. What makes these communicators so engaging? Books on preaching will give us a number of answers including the Holy Spirit’s unique blessing, their personal emotional power, the beauty of their language, and the clarity with which they explain the Biblical text.
Preaching is largely teaching. Jesus Christ taught the people (Matt. 5:2), and the Great Commission commands us to do the same to all the peoples of the world (Matt. 28:19-20). One vital, but often overlooked aspect of teaching is insight. Good teachers are insightful, and bad teachers are superficial, obvious, and predictable.
Writing on such a subject should imply that boring sermons are far too common, and that insight deserves more attention in homiletics, not that the present writer can say anything other than the apostle, “Who is sufficient for these things?”
What is insight and how can its lack be cured? Insight is the aspect of teaching that interests, stimulates, and raises the mind. However, like a scent or a beautiful painting it is more easily recognized than defined in words.
Defining Insight
Though it may be hard to define, here are six categories by which to think about insight including a pair of examples from Scripture.
1. Insight is making true, but commonly overlooked connections between ideas.
Both Samson and Christ accomplished more in their deaths than they did in their lives. And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he bent with all his might so that the house fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he killed in his life. Judges 16:30
Eve is called Adam’s helper in Gen. 2:18, but God is also called Israel’s helper with the same Hebrew word in Psalm 30:10.
2. Insight is seeing from unexpected perspectives so that what was hidden is now in the open.
For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory (2 Tim. 2:10). Sovereign election encourages us to keep going as missionaries. It doesn’t stop us from evangelizing.
Is Christ our example? Not in everything. Christ is not a complete example for sinners because he never knew what it was to repent of sin (Heb. 4:15).
3. Insight is grasping the relationship of individual parts to the larger system.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, (Eph. 5:25). Christ died with a special intention for His bride. There was a love for her that He did not have for others.
And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female…” (Matt. 19:4). Adam and Eve were created at the beginning of time, therefore, no form of evolution can fit with Biblical Christianity.
4. Insight is weighing the importance of different parts of the whole so that their relative value is apparent to each other and in light of the larger body.
Christ commands us both to be baptized and to believe on Him. The second command is more important, unless the manner of denying the first command is actually a repudiation of his Lordship.
A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. “But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet (1 Tim. 2:11-12).” This doctrine is not as vital to Christianity as believing that Jesus Christ is God (1 John 5:1). However, if allowing a woman to preach is covering for a settled refusal to bow to Christ as Lord, then it is indicative of a kind of apostasy.
5. Insight is stretching past the explicit statements to a logically coherent, Biblically sanctioned conclusion that often escapes the notice of others.
God loves the world (John 3:16), and God hates sinners (Psalm 5:5). Therefore, in the mind of God lies an infinite ability such that he can express both love and hate to the same being at the same time.
The last verse in Jonah says, “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?” God has special compassion for infants and even animals.
6. Insight is attaching the right metaphor to the right affection.
Christ loves us like a husband, not a boyfriend.
A sinner has followed his lusts like an insane person (Tit. 1:15), not merely someone who made a mistake.
In each of these six categories, there are factors that make insight uncommon. Usually it has to do with time for reflection, but presuppositions also open or close or minds to insight. In other words, insight is finding a piece of the puzzle that was not made explicit.
Finding Insight
Here are five methods exemplified by the best preachers and found in works like Watts’ Logic.
1. Read insightful authors or talk to insightful people.
Since we learn by imitation, draw near to those who have the qualities of speech and mind that you want to see in yourself. If you are not insightful and if you have no interest in being insightful, you will not enjoy spending time with those who are. But if you have a great desire to grow in this skill, you will find yourself pulled to these men who are above you, even if you can’t understand everything they say.
2. Teach your eyes to see the big picture.
One way to do this is to practice the art of summarizing. Try to summarize the Bible in one sentence. Then the NT. Then the OT. Then individual books. For example, Dutch philosopher, Herman Dooyeweerd, broke all of life into 15 categories in an effort to comprehend the whole of the universe under the authority of Christ.
a. Numerical aspect: amount
b. Spatial aspect: continuous extension
c. Historical aspect: flowing movement
d. Physical aspect: energy, matter
e. Organic aspect: life functions, self-maintenance
f. Mental aspect: feeling and response
g. Logical aspect: distinction, conceptualization
h. Scientific aspect: formative power, achievement, technology, technique
i. Lingual aspect: symbolic communication
j. Social aspect: social interaction
k. Economic aspect: frugal use of resources
l. Aesthetic aspect: harmony, surprise, fun
m. Political aspect: due, rights, responsibility
n. Ethical aspect: self-giving love
o. Religious aspect: faith, vision, commitment, belief
What makes this list insightful? He tried to grasp all of reality in less than half a page. In order to do this he had to define each of these categories carefully. His definitions for individual parts of the system had to fit smoothly with all the other parts.
Biblical Theology tries to look at the Bible this way. This discipline attempts to show how history has one main story, and all the little episodes are just scenes in this greater drama.
3. Closely related to this practice is the ability to make definitions.
Your mind must become accustomed to learning clear definitions for the broadest categories of life. A mind sharpened by a mastery of logic will cut hearts. This point is a summary of Watts’ Logic (pages 99-113, Soli Deo Gloria reprint) where he teaches us to define things in two steps: First, determine the basic attribute of a thing, and second, search for the essential difference—how that thing differs from all others in its category.
A mind that defines clearly will more quickly notice when his thought and preaching are disconnected. He will also be able to make connections with other ideas more fluently since he can define them as well.
4. Learn to see the world through analogies.
An analogy is a comparison, like this sentence. The Bible is filled with analogies because that is the way God has made our minds to think. The right analogies, comparisons, and metaphors (like that list) are the best use of language because they carry not just denotations but connotations—not just propositions but affections as well. What are these comparisons supposed to do to our minds?
a. Jesus is the Bread of Life, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Husband of the Church.
b. God is our Father, our King, our Judge, our Shield, our Song.
c. The devil is Satan (which means enemy in Hebrew).
d. The church is like a light, a city on a hill, a temple, a house, a body, a bride, and a nation.
e. A sinner is a goat, a child of Satan, a weed, dead, a plant with no roots, and a criminal.
f. False teachers are animals, trees of a different kind, dead trees, and casual workers.
g. The Christian life is a journey, a war, a building project, farming a field, and a business venture.
h. Salvation is being brought out of slavery, being raised to life, being discharged from prison, and being adopted to a new family.
5. Look for new (yet Biblical) ways to say things.
If you are preaching on repentance again, find some new way to get that same old truth. Metaphors show there worth here.
If you’re always saying, “You must repent!” Try saying, “Are you a prodigal? When will you turn your eyes to your Father?”
If you’re always saying, “Believe in Christ!” Try saying, “Hide yourself under the cross!”
Insight is such a great gift, it will not come without hard work over a long period of time. Maybe the government will give someone a degree for free, but no one will become insightful for free. We are an era of surface gliders. So our preachers are as well, but who can listen to that each week for an hour? May we find grace to speak in a manner worthy of an oracle of God.
Guest post by Forrest McPhail, churchplanter among the Khmer of Cambodia
The Winds of God: How the Gospel Swept the Four Corners of Southern Ethiopia by Raymond Davis is an interesting little book. God works different ways at different times among the various peoples where He is calling out a people for His name, and it is interesting and instructive to read accounts like these. In Ethiopia, He chose to work in a very profound way, with much visible fruit, over the course of several decades (1930s-1970s). The Church was born there amidst much persecution, including murders and imprisonments, relative poverty, widespread illiteracy, occupation by the Italians in WW2, later Communism, and extreme pagan tribal culture.
In that movement of God, the Lord did use foreign missionaries, both in church planting as well as discipleship and training. National workers however, both ordained pastors, as well as their co-workers, did most of the work, of their own volition.
Funds? The movement was almost entirely sustained by the national believers. Bible conferences, supplies, love offerings for special meetings, support for evangelists, prayer houses (as they called meeting places) etc. came from the Ethiopian believers. They gave, and kept giving, and God kept blessing the forward movement during these years.
Cambodia? What a contrast! Nearly every city church is almost completely patronized by foreigners. Most pastors that are trained are funded from overseas. The Church does not pay for almost anything. Bible conferences, special meetings, pastoral support, evangelistic efforts, buildings etc. are almost always completely funded by foreigners. Cambodia is much better off financially than the Ethiopians spoken of in this volume. Why is Cambodia in this predicament?
One reason is history: the Church was largely birthed (a second time) after Pol Pot in the refugee camps and its aftermath of Communism, where emergency aid was necessary and vital to survival. Once things began to calm down and things began to normalize in the 1990s, the NGOs and Christian aid and development workers came in legion. The second reason for this endemic dependency, then, is foreign Christians who thought, and still do think, that the Cambodian church needs foreign money and projects in order to follow Christ—they could not be further from the truth!
What Cambodian churches need is the gospel, discipleship, and obedience to God’s Word, trusting God to meet their needs in their own context, not foreign funding. What happened in Ethiopia has happened among some in Cambodia, particularly among the tribals in Rattanikiri, but it is very rare among the main people group of Cambodia, the Khmer.
Missionaries who understand the need for Cambodian believers to live out the Gospel outside of financial dependence from abroad know also that God’s blessing will be largely restrained on the Church here until a change happens. This leads to frustration, thoughts of turning back, desires to look for easier places to minister, discouragement, discontentment, even disillusionment.
Yesterday I met with an American missionary who wanted to discuss ministry over for coffee. I found that he was very like-minded. He shared his burdens for Cambodia, which are similar to ours. He began to be passionate about the need for faith and confidence in God and His Word, that, if we ourselves will preach Christ in truth and keep calling Cambodian believers to biblical discipleship, God will bless. God will break through the mess and will raise up an indigenous church. Our job is to be faithful to our task and have a biblically informed faith in what God can do. I needed that encouragement from this man.
There is a growing number of foreign missionaries and Cambodian pastors that are awakening to the need for Cambodian churches to make the break from foreign funding, and, more than this, to return to biblical discipleship which would strengthen churches and lead them towards healthy NT local church life. This does not mean that foreign funding has no place, but it should definitely be a small part, if present at all, within the churches.
Pray for God to work! He is building His Church here! Pray that His people, both foreign workers and Cambodian believers, will rally around biblical truth, the power of the Gospel, and the Holy Spirit, resulting in “The Winds of God” blowing across this land in very clear ways, to His glory. Pray that we will be faithful to do our part, and full of faith in God, not ourselves.
History maketh a young man to be old, without either wrinkles or gray hairs; privileging him with the experience of age, without either the infirmities or inconveniences thereof. Without history a man’s soul is purblind, seeing only the things which almost touch his eyes.
Thomas Fuller
A special joy known only to those who love the church of God rests on th
e birth of a new assembly of believers. After years of evangelism and preaching, the Whunga Baptist Church was officially formed on Sunday, 20 March 2016. On that weekend, Alpheus Nyalungu and I arrived in Whunga, Zimbabwe in order to lend our support and approval to the two men who are laboring to evangelize there.
Though the village is only 250 kilometers from us in South Africa, Saturday’s trip—including the border crossing—took 10 hours. The return trip on Monday was a breezy, 5-hour jaunt. We were only stopped by police and roadblocks once, though we were warned to beware of more interaction from the public protectors. On our return we were so pleased at the speed with which they were processing us at the border crossing that the official took our happiness for mockery and along with a scowl held up a hand-written sign that said, “beware touts”.
The village of Whunga is positioned about 50 k’s off a major asphalt road in Zimbabwe in a hot and usually dry region. This last year was especially bad for crops, but one benefit of the arid condition is the absence of mosquitoes. Whunga and the villages around it have no electricity, running water, police, or health services, but thankfully, cell phone signals have spread their growing webs there.
Saturday night we slept in Zezani in Jastone Sebola’s copy shop 
where he makes a living for himself and his brother by making photo copies and other printing requests. Solar panels and batteries power the machines. Jastone is the twin brother of Justice, both of whom graduated from Limpopo Bible Institute in 2010. The day before he had waited all day on the side of a little road waiting for our vehicle to pass by, and when we did pass the place he had been for many hours, we were just in time to see a hyena enjoying some road kill.
Jastone left a good-paying job in Johannesburg, South Africa at his brother’s request to help him plant the church in Whunga. What is his role in the church plant? He pays the bills for both families while his brother invests heavily in evangelism and preaching. Sunday morning we drove from Jastone’s house in Zezani the 18 k’s to Whunga which prompted me to ask how Jastone and his family get to church each week when they don’t have access to a vehicle. I was amazed to hear of two hurdles they overcome in order to ride in a taxi over those bumpy roads. First, they pay $8 every Sunday for taxi fare—a significant fee, and second, they step into the minivan at 3 am Sunday morning only to return from church at 5 pm. When they get off the taxi in their brother’s village, they walk, with an infant 3 kilometers, and then sleep at his house until 8 am. The service starts at 10 am, and they have only missed two services in the past two years.
As we drove the road to the village Sunday morning, the rains that had not come that year suddenly fell. The flash flood spawned tributaries and streams that crossed and re-crossed the road. Suddenly sections of the road had become rushing paths for the drainage water. I think many Americans who pay money for 4×4’s would also pay money to experience driving them through such conditions. Caleb and Colin whooped with excitement as we passed through impromptu rivers leaving other vehicles stranded for several hours until the water drained away. At one point, a river had so eroded the way we turned into the bush and made a path through mud, grass, and scraggly thorn trees.
Jastone’s twin, Justice and his wife Lisa stay in the village of Whunga at which we joyfully arrived through the rain. The large fields he had plowed with a donkey lost nearly all their crops this year due to the drought, yet now they were saturated. He was busy with an addition to his house made from bricks that he formed from the mud and cooked until they were rock hard. I was impressed with how straight the walls were.
This young couple ushered us into their two-room house where I had a pleasing vision of his solid library which included a number of Banner of Truth books. Many of those books were supplied by the African Pastors Conference ministry. Martyn Lloyd-Jones once said, “the type of theology you hold will decide whether you are a reader or whether you are not.” We rejoice that these two men take the Bible and its truth s
o seriously that they want to understand it all. In the afternoon, Justice led a discussion which eventually went about two hours in length over the love of God as seen in the cross.
A path about two kilometers long reaches the school building where the believers meet. They had a simple guitar that Justice had learned to tune by ear. Along with some chords he learned while at LBI, they sang several hymns in Venda during the service. Probably, owing to the rain about 4-5 regular attenders did not come, but there were 7 adults, 7 teenagers, and a number of children.
Alpheus, my friend from Elim Baptist in South Africa, preached the morning sermon in Venda on the hatred that a true Christian has for sin. Then we began hearing testimonies from the 9 who were prepared to be baptized that day. One man g
ave his testimony, but since he was not clear on the gospel, we asked him if we as prepared to persevere until we could see that he was a true believer. He seemed to be content saying time will help him understand. This man, Mr. Moyo joined us for lunch and listened to the Christ-centered conversation.
Jastone had translated and printed the church covenant of Elim Baptist to be used as the covenant for the believers in Whunga, and they all agreed to bind themselves as true Christians. Before heading to the river, we invited those who had been accepted for baptism to enjoy the Lord’s Table for the first time in that village.
Then we all made our way to what was now a fast-flowing, broad, yet shallow river where I was told repeatedly there are no crocodiles. They sang one of the songs from the morning, “Heart, Soul, and Body” a song of dedication to Christ while I baptized the 9 new members of WBC which included both Jastone’s and Justice’s wives.
Both of these men chose to live in these poor villages. They could at any time return to South Africa and search for jobs which would allow them to live in significantly greater comfort. But for the sake of the church which He purchased, for the glory of God seen in the slowly changing lives of the new believers, for love of those souls whose only end is eternal torment without the message of the gospel, for hope that a slow, steady ministry will produce fruit that endures into eternity, these brothers and their wives live and minister in a place that would be too difficult for most Western missionaries.
Seeing the new believers take the bread and the juice along with Alpheus, Caleb, and I reminded me with bracing force that what I was seeing was the Great Commission being fulfilled. Missions is that which labors to leave a body of believers in those desperately hard places. Outside of a miracle, it cannot be done in a short time. It cannot be done without intentional Bible teaching and patient discussions. It is generally small groups of believers who have been won over a significant period of evangelism. It does not despise children’s ministry. And as I experienced it again this weekend, it is powered by the glory of God’s sovereignty and grace.
On the way home, Alpheus and I spoke about the comfort we had taken from seeing this new body of brothers and sisters. If Jastone and Justice can provide for their own needs as tentmakers while evangelizing in the rural areas, then it can be done again and again in the many thousands of villages.
For an entire year a young man I’ll call Brian came to hear the Bible preaching in the “Blue Prison” section of Kuthama Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison where he is serving a life sentence for murder.
Every Tuesday, I went through another Christian doctrine such as humility, personal responsibility, justice, Biblical manhood, true and false repentance, the doctrine of punishment, and the role of government. My goal was to draw the men to Christ through simple Bible teaching on these vital themes.
This year I continued teaching, yet Brian as one of my brightest students from 2015 didn’t return. Yesterday as I taught the handful of men who remained, he stopped by to greet me. A portion of our conversation is reproduced here.
Seth: “Why aren’t you coming back to study the Bible this year?”
Brian: “From 1-6 pm is my time to sleep so that I can study for my other courses.”
Seth: “So, you are so disinterested in learning the Bible, that you would prefer to sleep in prison when I come from the outside to teach?”
Brian: “Well, we have different doctrine. You have your teaching, and I have mine. This is the way I was brought up, so I can’t change that.”
Seth: “Brian, is there anyone else in the prison that preaches the doctrines I preach?”
Brian: [After thinking] “No.”
Seth: “On Sunday do you go to church?”
Brian: “Yes.”
Seth: “And does an inmate usually preach?”
Brian: “Yes, each week it is a different one.”
Seth: “Have you ever heard one of those men preach the message that I preached about humility, repentance, and the gospel?”
Brian: “No.”
Seth: “Please remember my eyes and voice pleading with you, Brian. Because if you cannot endure to hear the gospel being preached, then you are in great danger of Hell.”
The brief interview ended with us both realizing that African Christianity which includes the prosperity gospel and charismaticism is fundamentally different—and can have no fellowship with—true Christianity.
But I fear that many well-meaning Americans and others coming from the cities may hear God-talk and the name of Jesus Christ, and then ignorantly assume that “There are so many Christians!” They would rather sleep in prison than listen to gospel-centered, Bible teaching. Does that sound like the work of the Holy Spirit?
I grade books in five categories so that the maximum score is a 10. Each book can get a zero, 1, or 2 according to the grid below. My scores follow the book title in the list below. Under each title is a summary of the book’s main point.
Awards:
Scoring:
0 The book was notable for lacking this category repeatedly.
1 The book dipped into this category at times.
2 The book consistently demonstrated this category.
Nonfiction Categories:
Nonfiction Books of 2015 (24)
Fiction Categories:
Fiction Books of 2015 (6)
If you made it this far and want the chart that breaks each book’s scoring down per category, I can send it to you.
Striving for true doctrine, right action, and spiritual feeling amidst the mine fields on all sides.
I could wish that they had dealt with Rom. 7:2-3 in its own chapter. Also, the syllogism of Eph. 5:25:
1. A husband must be like Jesus Christ.
2. Jesus Christ never divorces His wife.
Conclus…
An interesting and perhaps important book which educates the citizen to vital factors about the region and country to which he is obligated to vote, pray, …
For its glorious and compelling presentation of Christ as well as intensity that comes straight from Scripture, this book deserves more honor than Pilgrim’s Progress.
Plot:
1….
