Acts is especially the book of the Spirit. The earliest title for the book seems to have been simply “The Acts.” Even that title, of course, was not original because Acts was the second part of the Gospel of Luke. Some have suggested, however, that... Read More »

The preacher’s headache in the book of Acts is not that of finding something to say but of deciding what to leave unsaid. Once a preacher has familiarized himself with the contents and continuity of the book by reading it straight through several times, ... Read More »

How does the pastor find time for the study required to teach Colossians? He will, only if the truth in the Colossian letter personally comes alive. The time factor is faced constantly by the busy pastor. The purpose of this article is to call attention to Col... Read More »

The phrase “all in all” (Col. 3:11b) may well refer to a summing up of things. For example, one might say, all in all it has been a good year. The words may also be a confession of an ultimate allegiance: “Christ is all in all.” The two... Read More »

Preaching from Colossians, or from any other book in the Bible, is an effort to communicate the meaning of God’s revealed truth. The whole process is two-way—the preacher and the listener participating together in what is being said and heard—or ther... Read More »

Because we do not have access to the original outline of the authors, all outlines of biblical books are by necessity artificial. The interpreter is called upon to work back from the finished product to an organizing structure for the book. To do this he must ... Read More »

A key principle sounded by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount was that the righteousness of a disciple of the kingdom must exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 1:20). This principle became a vital part of the cutting edge of the unique ... Read More »

Galatians is a theological battleground. It is the primary document in a struggle for the very life of early Christianity. If Paul had lost his battle, Christianity would have been left as an inferior sect of Judaism. But, by the grace of God, the liberating g... Read More »

According to Philips Brooks, preaching is the “communication of truth through personality.” Andrew Blackwood says that God is the source of truth for biblical preaching, so putting the two together we can define biblical preaching as the communicat... Read More »

Distill prayer to its irreducible minimum and what you have is communication; God and man in touch. Preaching on the subject, therefore, ought to begin with interpreting the nature of that communication. Definitions are always on the preacher’s agenda. T... Read More »