I've been listening to a lot of sermons on Exodus recently. We'll be preaching through it at All Souls in the Autumn.
The great majority of preachers I've listened to are the sorts who are always saying "God's unfolding plan of redemption" and "the progressively revealed purposes of God culminating in Jesus" and "they spoke better than they knew" and all that jazz that you'd swear was in the bible, but it's not.
Nice fellas. But. You know...
What's fascinated me is that these guys preach Passover exactly like I do. Only much better. They're older saints, more experienced preachers, and their Passover sermons are tasty, filling, uplifting, glorious... They are OT sermons full of Jesus. But they stand in violent contrast to the prior sermons in the series.
I've listened to three preachers preach whole series' from chapters 1-20. And for each of the three, the sermons prior to Exodus 12 have been dull, dry, lifeless and almost completely Christless. Like, unbelievably Christless. Like - this would be kosher in a synagogue - Christless. Which actually shocked me because I thought all the 'unfolding plan' guys had sworn oaths to 'Progress' that they would always 'bridge to Jesus' for better or worse. But these guys must have been crossing their fingers cos Jesus was averaging less than one mention per sermon.
And then... Exodus 12 and the Spirit descends in glory and the angels sing.
And what really amazes me is that these are the same guys who are always saying "Christ in the Old Testament is not like Where's Wally. It's about more than a few purple passages or Messianic prophecies, it's about the whole redemptive-historical sweep."
Ok, good. So why is your preaching so uneven? Unless you really think Christ pops up only here and there?
But what if the whole Hebrew bible cries 'Behold the Lamb'?
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Your series will be downloadable right? I've got a 2 session overview of the book to finish preparing for mid-November...
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I like what Tim Keller says: To preach Christ from the Bible requires more than just good understanding of typology, but "instinct" (see this post, or better, listen to the mp3 itself).
Point well taken Glen! Hey I haven't been here for a while, but I popped over, and since I'm in Exodus now in my "Read the Bible Through In As Many Years As It Takes" program, I'll pop by in. Hopefully you'll publish some of what your studying here. Hey, for starters, I read in Exodus 4:24 that at an inn the Lord met with Moses and sought to kill him. What's up with that?
Ok, So, the reason I came to your blog is I heard there was a strong earthquake in Christ Church. I seem to remember you are from New Zealand? Or Australia?
In any case praying that there is only minor damage.
No, I see it now, you are from Canberra.
Hi Dave, yes I will post what I do. But it'll be pretty gentle stuff on a Sunday morning - don't want to rock the boat too much.
Hey Duane,
Nice to hear from you again.
I recently blogged through Exodus for lent and I'm sure we covered the emergency circumcision!
https://christthetruth.net/2010/04/04/all-exodus-posts/
"Don't want to rock the boat..." - no one said anything about rocking boats, you need to get out of the boat and walk on the water... something like that.
Duane, it wasn't a nice way to wake up, but everyone here is alright. Much property damage, everyone in Christchurch is boiling their water, some people lost power for a while, but there were only three reports of injuries (and no fatalities); this after an earthquake the same magnitude as Haiti's.
We have much to be thankful for.
Ko Aotearoa e ngunguru nei - this is Aotearoa, the rumbling land.