Expect Great Things. Attempt Great Things.

May 6, 2020

Sermons can have a powerful individual effect. It is under the hearing of these sermons that people are saved, instructed, and grow in their faith. People will leave the church building saying, “It’s like he was preaching to just me” or “ I needed to hear that today.” However, some sermons go beyond personal effect. Some have the power to move a denomination and, in turn, leave a lasting change in the world.

This is precisely what happened to the Particular Baptist denomination of England when Andrew Fuller and William Carey delivered two powerful sermons to their local association in the early 1790s. God used these two sermons, and these two men, to change the course of history and usher in what we now call the modern-missions movement.

"The Song in the Night": A Christmas Reflection from Carl Henry

December 23, 2019

That night the angel echoed over the Judean hills a song, gladder tidings than which man will never hear. The words were the first evangelistic sermon of the gospel era, and the preacher was an angel. The pulpit was historic ground. On those Bethlehem slopes, on those same hillsides, David of old had fed his father’s flocks, and from those same fields he went forth at God’s command to exchange his shepherd’s crook for the royal scepter, and his lowly dress for the purple of a king. In those shaggy woods and grassy vales, where the pale moon cast its glow over the solemn hills, there rang forth the good news of God’s coming in the flesh:

“Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

Was the Reformation a Success?

October 14, 2019

This talk was given at Hinson Baptist Church in Portland, OR on Oct. 29, 2017, in celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.

Was the Reformation a success?

That probably seems like a strange question for us to think about. Here on this historic Reformation Sunday, this is a question worth considering. How do we know the Reformation was a success? Megachurches? Political church alliances? Rapid church multiplication? New York Times bestsellers? What could we point to?

Small Beginnings: C. H. Spurgeon at Waterbeach

June 24, 2019

Before he was the pastor of the largest of church in London, president of the Pastors’ College, founder of an orphanage and dozens of other charitable institutions, and read by people from all over the world, C. H. Spurgeon pastored a small Baptist church in the village of Waterbeach, about five miles outside of Cambridge. At that time, few could have predicted what was to come. And yet, God used his faithful ministry to bring about a transformation to that village during his short time there.

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Small Beginnings: J. C. Ryle in Exbury

April 8, 2019

When we think of some of church history’s great preachers, we naturally think of them at the height of their ministries: preaching to thousands, organizing conferences, publishing books. But this is not where their ministries began. At one point in time, the greatest of men were unknown and inexperienced, and they had many things to learn before they became the preachers we know.

One such person was J. C. Ryle. As the Bishop of Liverpool, he would defend orthodoxy within the Church of England against modern theology, Anglo-Catholicism, and the growth of the Keswick Conference. But long before he ever became a bishop, his first ministry position came in 1841, the curacy in the district of Exbury within the parish of Fawley, “a dreary, desolate, solitary place.”

Rest for the Weary, Working Soul: Finding the Answer to Humanity’s Greatest Quest in one of Zwingli’s Favorite Passages

March 20, 2019

For Zwingli, the Christian can have assurance that Jesus offers rest for weary souls because of “the clarity and certainty of the Word of God.” Without this sure foundation, the faithful are subject to a life of uncertainty and toil, constantly re-plowing the ground that God has already prepared in their own lives.

“Because We Need Him:” Historical Sermon Illustrations from Matthew 9:12

September 24, 2018

“But when Jesus heard this, He said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.” – Matthew 9:12 (NASB)

“I try to be as good as I can”

From Charles H. Spurgeon’s “The Great Physician and His Patients,” 1865

A minister, when he had done preaching in a country village, said to a farm-labourer who had been listening to him, “Do you think Jesus Christ died to save good people, or bad people?” “Well, sir,” said the man, “I should say he died to save good people.” “But did he die to save bad people?” “No, sir; no, certainly not, sir.” “Well, then, what will become of you and me?” “Well, sir, I do not know. I dare say you be pretty good, sir; and I try to be as good as I can.”

Jonathan Edwards on the Necessity of Good Preaching

February 9, 2018

For Jonathan Edwards, good preaching gets at the sin-hardened hearts of people, and works to soften these hearts to love God above all. Good preaching causes a holy zeal in people for the things of God. Good preaching penetrates the will of a person, so that the word of God permeates her volition. Good preaching enlivens the soul of a person, so that he is set to carry out the work of God in his body.

John Calvin on God's Spirit and God's Word

November 28, 2017

The relationship between Word and Spirit is foundational for understanding Calvin’s theology. He maintained an inherent and necessary relationship between the Word of God and the work of the Holy Spirit to teach, illumine, and reveal the Word. Never in Calvin’s theology are the two pitted against one another, but rather Calvin consistently maintained a mutual dependence.

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