Preaching the New Testament Paperback – February 1, 2013

The chapter on Hebrews is amazing

This book does not deal with some of the classic conversations on preaching. There is not a section on good introductions or conclusions, or there is not advice on illustrations, and parallel point development. What the book does do is look at the methods of preaching the various genres within the New Testament text. It can be rather specific, in which it deals with gospel and epistles, but will also go into how to preach a parable, and how to preach the birth narrative. There are chapters on almost all types of writing within this book. The book is really a variety of authors. Each author has contributed a chapter on a particular area.Each chapter is pretty insightful, and with it being a compilation of various authors, each chapter can be a little stronger or weaker. Each chapter does a great job of giving the holistic intent of that style of writing. Here is a quick example. " At one level, this is of course a rather obvious point, but it is surprising how often `themes' are lifted from the Gospels and preached on without much reference to the story of Jesus, as if it is the theme that is more important than the person around whom they gain their meaning. Many of the stories in the Gospels are stories told by Jesus of course, but they function as part of the more basic story told by the Evangelists about Jesus." You will gain a strong insight into the overriding themes within each book, and this will inform your preaching.The book highlights that not all writing fits well within a certain scope of preaching. Expository preaching does a excellent job with the Epistles, while Narrative preaching handles the stories within the gospel, and a post-liberal approaches does well with the parables. You should tailor your approach to the genre.There are also excellent insight to the text. Here is another example. "For example, the `great commission' (28:16-20; which is usually preached without regard to its context) is actually closely related to the preceding section (10-15) and contrasts two kinds of `preaching': the preaching of the guards who, having gone to the highest authority in the land are told what to say on the basis of falsehood, and the preaching of the disciples who, having been commissioned by the highest authority in the universe, are told what to say on the basis of the truth."This book is somewhat scholarly, but if you are looking to do a series on a particular type of genre or style of writing, like the miracles accounts, this is a good book to read before starting and developing the series.

Expository preaching is not an easy task. It requires familiarity with the Bible and your listeners, as well as facility in bridging the contextual divide between the two. In other words, it involves at least three disciplines: exegesis, homiletics, and hermeneutics.Preaching the New Testament is a collection of 17 essays by evangelical New Testament scholars who are also preachers. Edited by Ian Paul and David Wenham, it does not focus on "persuasive communication." Rather, it offers "insights about how to interpret and communicate the New Testament today." In other words, its focus is on exegetical and hermeneutical foundations of homiletics rather than on the mechanics of homiletics.The first 11 essays are organized in canonical New Testament order, with specific focus on the Gospels (ch. 1), the infancy narratives (ch. 2), Jesus' parables and miracles (chs. 3, 4), the Sermon on the Mount (ch. 5), Acts (ch. 6), Paul's letters (ch. 7), the Pastoral Epistles (ch. 8), Hebrews (ch. 9), the General Epistles (ch. 10), and Revelation (ch. 11). The remaining six essays address archaeology and history (ch. 12), New Testament ethics (ch. 13), hope and judgment (ch. 14), relational hermeneutics (ch. 15), exegesis and the "New Homiletic" (ch. 16), and evangelistic preaching (ch. 17).As a Pentecostal, I was especially interested in the chapters on preaching Jesus' miracles and Acts. Pentecostals typically ignore the hermeneutical divide between narrative and normative, between what Jesus and the early church did and what we should do. So it was interesting to see how evangelicals negotiate the divide. Though I did not agree with all the conclusions in these chapters, I learned from both of them.Expository preachers needing help with this Sunday's sermon will not find it here. Preaching the New Testament offers no plug-and-play advice for procrastinating pulpiteers. Rather, it should be read long in advance of preparing an individual sermon, perhaps as you are planning a new sermon series. It will stimulate insights into about the meaning and significance of the New Testament for contemporary audiences. For the mechanics of how to persuasively communicate these insights from the pulpit, you'll need to read other books.