As Christians, we are given another future. It is not a posthuman epic, but a future given us in the resurrection of the One who is both God and man from the dead, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Rituals, like the liturgy and the sacraments, resist domestication and confront us with a world and worldview brought forth from the Bible and through twenty centuries of Christianity for the purpose of arresting our contemporary worldview through its self-sameness.
God reveals Himself as a tender-hearted, deeply caring parent—even to the point of deeply grieving over us when we stop listening to Him. But in Job, and sometimes in our daily experience, He reveals Himself as a whole lot more.
What all variations of affable chatter share in common is that the preacher does not do justice to the most salient fact about him and his hearers: They are dead men walking.
Baxter is concerned that much of the Church’s preaching has become either too moralistic or too spiritualized. What’s his answer to this problem? Expository preaching.
A solid structure, a lively skeleton, inarguably makes your messages more life-giving. They will be clearer, more interesting, and easier both to follow and to remember.
Behind the preacher stands Christ Jesus. Preachers listen to Jesus so that, in turn, they may preach Him, and their congregations may hear the voice of the Good Shepherd from the mouths of their pastors.