Let’s do what it takes |
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The sermon really was interesting. It was about travels to foreign lands, brushes with death, and how the amazing power of the gospel can transform one broken life after another. But Eutychus tuned it out, becoming lost in his own reverie. This lesson could have been the best experience he’d had in months, but it wasn ’t. He was missing it. A man next to him was holding a scroll. Eutychus could have followed along as the preacher explained how one messianic prophecy after another painted a portrait of Jesus hundreds of years before His birth. The wonder of how this had happened should have peaked his interest and kept Eutychus alert, but he didn’t even glance at the man’s scroll. His head started bobbing. The boy could have fixed his eyes on the preacher, watching how his facial expressions added important nuances to the bare words. The speaker’s gestures were animated, keeping the whole audience spell-bound. Everyone except Eutychus, who didn’t see them. Suddenly he slid sideways, and the movement jerked him awake. He threw his weight the opposite direction, lost his balance, and with a scream fell out the window—a third-story window. Fortunately for Eutychus, the visiting preacher was the apostle Paul, who immediately raised the boy from the dead. Eutychus learned to do what it takes to stay awake during a sermon. Have you? |
| —Steve Singleton DeeperStudy.com |
Want to go deeper?You may be surprised to learn that the word "sermon" does not occur in the New Testament. About the closest we can get to it is the Greek noun kērugma ("what is preached, message, proclamation"), which occurs eight times. Jesus points out to His audience that the Ninevites repented in response to the message of Jonah, yet One greater than Jonah was among them (Matt. 12:41; Luke 11:32). In Rom. 16:25 (if it is authentic), Paul says God is able to strengthen the Roman believers according to his gospel, the proclamation of Jesus Christ, and the revelation of the mystery silent through long eons of time. These are three ways of saying the same thing: Paul's gospel was his proclamation about Jesus Christ, and it was a hidden mystery in times past. To the Corinthians he says God is pleased through the "foolishness" of the message to save those who believe (1 Cor. 1:21). Later on he says his word and message did not involve persuasive words of wisdom but were a demonstration of the Spirit and of power (1 Cor. 2:4). In 1 Cor. 15:4, he argues that if Christ is not raised, "then our message is vain and so is your faith." Paul tells Titus that God brought His word to light "by the proclamation entrusted to me" (Titus 1:3). He tells Timothy that when he had to give his defense before the emperor, everyone abandoned him. But God gave him the strength he needed so that "through me the message might be fully proclaimed...." (2 Tim. 4:17). These passages give us a fairly complete picture of the content of the apostolic proclamation. Its core message concerns Christ the Savior, the resurrected one. It has the power to save those who believe, and this power is from the Holy Spirit. It reveals a mystery previously kept quiet for long ages. Finally, it is God's own word brought to light. That same proclamation is made today and has the same power to save and to transform lives as it had then.
Leon Morris. The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross (reprinted again and again since 1955) This book deserves to be considered one of the modern classics of biblical scholarship, seeks to understand their use of such terms as "redeem," "covenant," "propitiate," "reconcile," and "justify" - concepts that central to the Christian faith today. Respected scholar Leon Morris studies these themes against the background of relevant Old Testament passages, takes into account the light shed on the meanings of these words in the everyday language New Testament times by recent manuscript discoveries, and compares apostolic terminology to that used in the writings of rabbinic Judaism. The result of Morris's careful background research is a lucid and rewarding study of the source of Christian theology--the death of Christ and the interpretation of its significance by the early church. Recommended for online reading: C. H. Dodd. "The Primitive Preaching," chapter 1 in his The Apostolic Preaching and Its Developments (1964). Considers the above uses of kerugma, relating them to other passages, particularly the speeches in the Book of Acts. |
Imagine this: As the visiting preacher droned on and on, Eutychus sat still
on the window ledge. The large room was stuffy and hazy from the smoke
of many lamps. The boy could feel himself getting drowsy. He could have
shifted his position a little, but he didn’t. The people around the visiting
preacher were eagerly leaning forward to catch every word. Eutychus was
leaning back, his eyes half-closed, or more than half.
