Preaching As Worship; Preaching That Is Not Afraid Of Affections.
As a preacher (ever learning and ever growing as I go) I am, as you can imagine, very interested in books about preaching. There are so many out there and I don't pretend to have read them all yet I want to share with you one particular extract:
In 'Pulpit Aflame' (a festschrift for Dr. S. J Lawson), Sinclair Ferguson offers the following words:
"No one sits "under" my preaching more than I do if I am the preacher. For the answer to the question, "who preaches to the preacher?" is the same as the answer to the question, "who preaches to the congregation?" Jesus Christ. This is the view and experience of preaching that is conducive to worship -- and first in the preacher himself. For here the preacher does not lord it over the congregation; he does not use the word as an instrument of his own dispositions or emotions; nor does he give the impression that he is wiser or greater or better than they are. He stands in front of them physically, but he sits besides them spiritually -- he is fundamentally the chief listener. Christ preaches to him even as the preacher preaches to them. Worship is the expression of the whole person...and it involves the affections.... This above all, requires the preacher to be familiar with Christ as the Affectionate One. This was the central element in Jonathan Edwards' homiletical thinking:
Clearly in Edwards' capacious and inquisitive mind there was no contradiction between rigorous clarity and deeply experienced affections."
Ferguson continues on to write, "Edwards was by no means original or novel in this emphasis. He himself drew on the so-called affectionate preaching in the Puritan tradition, especially Richard Sibbes and John Flavel"..... "The Emmaus road narrative (see Luke 24:13-35) describing how, through Christ's exposition of His own word, hearts are given up to the object of their affections as they burn in Christ's presence. This is ultimately what is in view in preaching and is the sine qua non of worship."
Ferguson then brings some reflections from a work by Puritan Willam Fenner entitled, A Treatise of The Affections:
1. Affections are raised, fixed, and enflamed when ministers "preach to the life", that is, when their exposition explains, describes and expounds reality as it is.
2. For this to become a reality in our own ministries of the word, we preachers must be full of affection. "Affection in the speaker is likely to beget affection in the hearer".
3. Preachers must be marked by godliness in their own lives...Only then will they be appropriate vessels through whom Christ will touch and move the affections of their hearers. This is not merely a matter of style but quality of life.
Ferguson closes his essay with, "Worship is the activity of every aspect of our being -- body, mind, will, and affections. One of the preachers burdens is the extent to which the Lord Jesus Himself desires to speak through our preaching of His word in order to make His people conscious of His presence and to bring them to bow in praise and love for Him. Our whole being as preachers, including our affections, must first be subdued to Christ, must be sanctified by His word, and must be sensitive to His Spirit...The chief end of preaching is that we may glorify God and enjoy Him forever."
The reality of worship, Ferguson states, "is like our forefathers used to say, "better felt than telt"
"No one sits "under" my preaching more than I do if I am the preacher. For the answer to the question, "who preaches to the preacher?" is the same as the answer to the question, "who preaches to the congregation?" Jesus Christ. This is the view and experience of preaching that is conducive to worship -- and first in the preacher himself. For here the preacher does not lord it over the congregation; he does not use the word as an instrument of his own dispositions or emotions; nor does he give the impression that he is wiser or greater or better than they are. He stands in front of them physically, but he sits besides them spiritually -- he is fundamentally the chief listener. Christ preaches to him even as the preacher preaches to them. Worship is the expression of the whole person...and it involves the affections.... This above all, requires the preacher to be familiar with Christ as the Affectionate One. This was the central element in Jonathan Edwards' homiletical thinking:
"I don't think [preachers] are to be blamed for raising the affections of their hearers to high...I should think myself in the way of my duty to raise the affections of my hearers as high as possibly I can, provided they are affected with nothing but the truth [of God's word]."
Clearly in Edwards' capacious and inquisitive mind there was no contradiction between rigorous clarity and deeply experienced affections."
Ferguson continues on to write, "Edwards was by no means original or novel in this emphasis. He himself drew on the so-called affectionate preaching in the Puritan tradition, especially Richard Sibbes and John Flavel"..... "The Emmaus road narrative (see Luke 24:13-35) describing how, through Christ's exposition of His own word, hearts are given up to the object of their affections as they burn in Christ's presence. This is ultimately what is in view in preaching and is the sine qua non of worship."
Ferguson then brings some reflections from a work by Puritan Willam Fenner entitled, A Treatise of The Affections:
1. Affections are raised, fixed, and enflamed when ministers "preach to the life", that is, when their exposition explains, describes and expounds reality as it is.
2. For this to become a reality in our own ministries of the word, we preachers must be full of affection. "Affection in the speaker is likely to beget affection in the hearer".
3. Preachers must be marked by godliness in their own lives...Only then will they be appropriate vessels through whom Christ will touch and move the affections of their hearers. This is not merely a matter of style but quality of life.
Ferguson closes his essay with, "Worship is the activity of every aspect of our being -- body, mind, will, and affections. One of the preachers burdens is the extent to which the Lord Jesus Himself desires to speak through our preaching of His word in order to make His people conscious of His presence and to bring them to bow in praise and love for Him. Our whole being as preachers, including our affections, must first be subdued to Christ, must be sanctified by His word, and must be sensitive to His Spirit...The chief end of preaching is that we may glorify God and enjoy Him forever."
The reality of worship, Ferguson states, "is like our forefathers used to say, "better felt than telt"
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