This is a short review about a small big on an incredible topic. What is preaching? A spiced up Bible study? A chance to tell all your jokes? An opportunity to make people smile? While Bible studies have their place, a sermon is something different. Reeves gives us a real sense of what preaching is. In his Foreword, Sinclair Ferguson writes how, “before the end of the sermon—the preacher must show himself to be not only a biblicist but a personalist” (15). We have to both search and explain the Scriptures for the eternal life it offers while also offering them Christ, the person.
In eight short chapters, Reeves—President and Professor of Theology at Union School of Theology—shows us how preaching should be filled with Christ. Aside from the bible itself, preaching is the divinely appointed means through which God speaks to His people. The Bible presents God as a Preacher, creating the world through speaking and offering the good news through his words. Following in line of the prophets and apostles who proclaimed God’s word, preachers relay this good news to sinners so that they do not need to work it out by themselves. According to Reeves, the preacher’s main role is to faithfully communicate God’s word, not to entertain or use impressive rhetoric. The preacher should be engaging without merely waxing eloquent.
Preachers should proclaim Christ as a person and a reality, not as a theological abstraction (put in place of Christ) nor as a mere idea (“treated as a dead specimen to be sliced and diced for our analysis,” p. 53). Paul didn’t preach better theological grammar for the sake of knowing more; he preached Christ the person who physically came to save us in real history. The preacher also must show christ through his inner life. Reeves writes, “For while a spiritually dry preacher may speak of Christ, if he does not himself enjoy Christ, he will not be able to present him as enjoyable” (55). Reeves doesn’t focus on the preacher’s out life (Matt 5:14, being a light to the world) because, while that is an aspect of pastoring, Reeves’ focus is on purely on the act of preaching itself.
How does one show that the Bible is divine? It is the Spirit who opens our eyes so that we may “see what was always there in the Bible for anyone with eyes to see” (42). A preacher aims to reach hearts so that they may be reformed. Reformed hearts “desire differently—so that they love God, enjoy God, and glory in God” (70). Preaching points our congregants to Christ every time and is worked into our hearers through the Holy Spirit. He transforms them, while we show them that Christ is something worth delighting over. Reeves sprinkles quotes from Spurgeon, Luther, Calvin, Edwards, Baxter, and other seasoned saints throughout his book.
Recommended?
This book is a helpful corrective away from people-pleasing preaching. Reeves reminds us that the gospel does not first get us “saved” only for us to work the rest of our way to heaven. It is the gospel itself, Christ’s work wrought in us by the Holy Spirit, “that does the deepest plough work in our hearts” (81). This book focuses on what preaching ought to be. The pastor does not need to drum up interest, but neither should he be drab and boring. Use common sense: be yourself and also aim for God’s glory in Christ. You’ll want to pair this with others books to learn bolster your learning in crafting sermons or other preparations (see below). But Reeves will help you focus on what is most important.
Pair this with Baxter’s Preparing Sermons from the Page to the Pulpit, Gibson’s Training Preachers, Pennington’s Small Preaching, and Bartholomew’s Excellent Preaching.
Buy it on Amazon or from Union Publishing!
Lagniappe
- Author: Michael Reeves
- Paperback: 84 pages
- Publisher: Union Publishing (July 2, 2024)
- Interview: Michael Reeves and Peter Mead discuss preaching
Review Disclosure: I received this book free from Union Publishing. The opinions I have expressed are my own, and I was not required to write a positive review. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html.
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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