Welcome to The On Preaching Podcast, the podcast dedicated to helping you to preach faithfully, clearly, and better. In 2 Timothy 4:5, Paul charges Timothy (and, thus, the Lord Jesus Christ charges the church and its ministers) to "do the work of an evangelist." We do not know if Timothy had the gift of evangelism. But he had a sacred duty to do the work of an evangelist. As we preach, there are two groups of people in the congregation: true believers, false believers, and unbelievers. We should always be sensitive to the unbelievers who may be present, so that...

Mark 15:22-32 records the crucifixion of Jesus. The word “crucified” occurs four times in these verses. That terrible term is the dominating theme of the text. Crucifixion was a slow death by dehydration, exhaustion, and asphyxiation. It was illegal for the Roman government to crucify Roman citizens. Foreign slaves, soldiers, and citizens were crucified. This “cruel and unusual punishment” was a public service announcement that warned all of the consequences of defying Caesar and Rome. The Jewish religious establishment and Roman political authorities did not crucify Jesus simply to get rid of him. They did it to make a point. Mark’s account focuses on the point that the Jews and Romans were making. The text is about the crucifixion of Jesus. Yet Mark says little about the crucifixion itself. The Gospels describe the crucifixion of Jesus in an economy of words. Mark ignores the physical...

ADORATION PASTOR: Before we ask God for anything in prayer, we should begin our prayers with adoration to God. To adore God is to worship God for who he is and to praise God for what he has done. Psalm 145:1-2 says: “I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.”  CONGREGATION: Lord, we worship you as the only living God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. You are our Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer. It is in you that we...

Phillips Brooks was visited by a friend who found the typically calm pastor pacing the floor like a caged lion. He finally asked what was wrong. Brooks replied, “The trouble is I’m in a hurry, but God isn’t.” Have you ever been there? Are you there now? This was the situation Judah faced. Unrepentant sin had invoked divine judgment. Assyria would be the means and mechanism through which the Lord would punish his people. The northern kingdom of Israel had already fallen. The same fate would soon befall the southern kingdom of Judah. Rather than coming back to God in repentance, Judah went to Egypt, hoping a political alliance would rescue them from danger.  Isaiah 30:1-2 rebukes their foolish and futile plans: “Ah, stubborn children,”...

In the church I grew up in, Deacon Heart and his team would go down the aisles with their hole punchers before Communion. Each congregant was given a membership card. It was the size of a business card with boxes for each month of the year at the bottom. Before Communion started, the deacons would go through the congregation and punch a hole in the box for that month.  If your box was hole-punched, it indicated that you were permitted to receive the bread and cup. If not, you were not to take the Lord’s Supper that day. I didn’t...

Franz Kafka wrote a story entitled “The Hunger Artist.” Professional fasting was a respected, lucrative, and celebrated art. The Hunger Artist was the main attraction. He sat in a cage for forty days without eating or drinking. When the fast ended, his manager made a speech. The band played. A woman led the weakened but triumphant hunger artist out of the cage. But the day came when fasting was no longer understood or appreciated. The hunger artist lost everything and joined the circus to survive. His cage was placed with the animals. He became depressed. No one paid him any attention. One fast went past forty days because his attendants neglected to count the days....

You start reading through Genesis. In Genesis 1, you read how God created the heavens and the earth. In Genesis 2, you read how God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 3, you read about the Fall, when Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden tree. In Genesis 4, you read how Cain killed his brother Abel. After breezing through these historical narratives, you hit a speed bump at the genealogy in Genesis 5.  The temptation is to skip over this biblical ancestry.com record. That would be a mistake. Nothing in scripture is meaningless, unnecessary, or superfluous. 2 Timothy 3:16 asserts: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” After Cain killed Abel, Eve gave birth to a son named Seth....

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. – 2 Timothy 2:15 I often say that I don’t want God to speak to me in the pulpit. I concluded this after hearing the story about the unprepared preacher who walked to the pulpit begging God to speak to him. To his surprise and dismay, the Lord spoke to him and said, “You should have studied.”  Get it?  If that’s how the Lord speaks, I don’t want the Lord to speak to me in...

You have heard of a “one-hit wonder” in music. Have you heard of a “one-scene wonder” in movies? The term refers to a moving or memorable cameo appearance, even though it is not central to the plot. There are many “one-scene wonders” in the story of Jesus. None stand out as much as Simon of Cyrene. He is only mentioned in three verses in the Bible: Matthew 27:32, Mark 15:21, and Luke 23:26. All three verses record the same incident.  Simon enters the story out of nowhere.  His screentime is minimal with no callbacks.  Yet you can’t forget him as the story moves on without him.  It was Good Friday. The Jewish religious establishment and the Roman political machine condemned Jesus...

Welcome to The On Preaching Podcast, the podcast dedicated to helping you to preach faithfully, clearly, and better. "Preaching and praying go together," It is well said. "If there is to be preaching in the pulpit, there must be praying in the pews." I fully agree with these statements. But I would add one point. Not only should there be prayer in the pews, but there should also be praying in the pulpit. The entire process of sermon planning, preparation, and delivery should be seasoned and saturated in believing prayer. What are the marks of a prayer-saturated sermon? Pray for...

Charles Wesley wrote his brother, John, to report what a doctor told him: “Most people die for fear of dying, but I never met with such people as yours. None of them are afraid to die, but are calm, and patient, and resigned to the last.” John Wesley wore that statement as a badge of honor. When asked what set Methodists apart from other Christians, Wesley remarked, “Our people die well.”  We talk a lot about the Christian lifestyle.  We don’t talk about the Christian death style. Warren Wiersbe wrote: “We are not really prepared to live unless we are prepared to...

Acts 2 records the birthday of the church on the day of Pentecost. Pentecost was a holy feast observed fifty days after Passover. During Passover, Jesus was betrayed, condemned, and crucified. The pilgrims left Jerusalem with rumors swirling that his body was missing. Pentecost was the next time Jerusalem was filled with worshipers. There were now credible claims that Jesus had risen from the dead.  On the day of Pentecost, the sound of a hurricane rocked the city. Crowds gathered at the epicenter of the sound, where 120 disciples of Jesus had been in prayer. This international crowd was amazed when these Galileans started praising God in languages they had never learned. Without a reasonable explanation for what they saw and heard, they concluded the disciples were drunk. Then Peter addressed the crowd.  Peter was the most devoted, courageous, and outspoken disciple...