Today's Preaching

Extraction from Daily Preaching:
Today's Preaching Insight...

Preaching God's Story, asks: "What would it mean to let the gospel be your guide in preaching? We must come back to the question, what is the gospel? First and foremost, the gospel is God's action, God's story, God's saving initiative toward the world which he has created. It bears repeating: the gospel is God's story.
To preach the gospel, then, means sentences in which God is the subject of active verbs. Beginning with accounts in Genesis and moving through the book of Revelation, it's easy to make quite a list of all that God does: God speaks, creates, judges, calls, sends, saves, delivers, feeds, clothes, promises, loves, shows mercy and kindness, does justice, and so on. To preach the gospel is to proclaim the accounts of the Scriptures in light of the fact that their central character is God, and that the gospel is from God and about the God who is Father, Son, and Spirit.

On John 11, the raising of Lazarus. The story is the climactic "sign" in the Gospel of John testifying to Jesus' identity as the resurrection and the life. Jesus' sign of raising the dead bears witness to the glory of God, that is, to the power of God to give life to the dead through Jesus. The preacher told the story, leading up to the dramatic moment when Jesus calls out, "Lazarus, come forth!" This story is one that embodies the gospel in all its simplicity—the power of Jesus, the one sent by God, and his word to give life. But, apparently feeling it inadequate, the preacher added, "And now Lazarus had to make a decision." It is, of course, a ludicrous picture: a dead man deciding whether or not to obey the word of Jesus! But the turn of this sermon illustrates something pernicious in much modern preaching: it is so easy to make the most powerful of Gospel stories center on human action and not on God, to think that somehow our actions, our decisions, are the heart and center of the gospel story. To make that move is to sell out the gospel."

主再來的預言

新的一年又来到了！小孩长高一些，大人老了一岁，地球却更近末日时刻，基督徒也需多多儆醒等候主耶稣的再来。聖經也有談到末世的預兆，到那日，會有許多戰爭、紛擾和災難，耶穌的信徒也要受到大逼迫，但先有一件事發生，末日才會來臨──外邦人的日期滿了。意思就是說，福音要先傳到每一個外邦人，然後才會展開進入末日的過程。

九一一驚爆事件後，大家開始問這個問題，末日來了嗎?末日什麼時候來?

門徒也問耶稣同樣的問題，末日來時有什麼預兆?
我們怎麼曉得末日來了?這樣問沒有錯。因為去看舊約聖經就知道，尤其是但以理書談到有一天,這世界會遭遇紛亂、患難，而且是空前絕後的嚴重。

[你們要謹慎,不要受迷惑，因為將來會有好些人冒我的名來說:我是基督。耶穌說:不要相信他們。]

耶穌再來時，全世界的人都會知道，因為會很像閃電從東到西。但那日子，那时辰，没有人知道，连天上的使者也不知道，子也不知道，惟有父知道。（可13：32/太24：36）耶穌說:你們會聽見打仗和擾亂的事不要驚惶，因為這些事必須先有，只是末期不能立時就到。看這段經文，不只看路加福音21：25-27 ，也要看記載同一件事的馬太福音廿四章。當時,耶穌對他們說民要攻打民,國要攻打國，地要大大震動，多處必有饑荒、瘟疫，又有可怕的異象和大神蹟從天上顯現。使我們心生恐懼的不就是這些事嗎?

但上帝的話真叫人放心。
你们要时时儆醒，常常祈求，使你们能逃避这一切要来的事，得以站立在人子面前。（路21：36）
明白這本聖經是純潔無瑕的真理，沒有一點一畫會改變，全都會實現。

那些屬上帝的人，稱祂阿爸父的人，都應該知道將來要發生的事，因為祂不要我們心生恐懼。但耶穌也從來不會粉飾太平。祂總是清楚告訴我們將來必有患難、逼迫來臨。

正如耶穌的預言：可13：2
耶穌在西元廿九年左右說了這個預言
应验结果：大約西元七十年時：聖殿在西元七十年被毀。羅馬的提多將軍率領大軍來圍攻耶城，他們築壘圍困耶城，最後將它摧毀怠盡。聖殿山的每一塊石頭都傾倒了。

接著祂說：外邦人的日期滿了，末日才會來到。（路21：24）

上帝的意思是什麼?

一棵天然的橄欖樹有很多枝子，這棵天然的橄欖樹就是以色列，他們是上帝的選民，如果這些枝子不相信耶穌基督是彌賽亞，上帝就把它折斷轉向外邦人，福音傳給了外邦人，外邦人就信了，於是外邦人被接上了枝子。等到外邦人都信了耶穌，並且轉過來跟隨祂，就是外邦人的日期滿了，這時就會展開邁向末日的過程。

這裡又說:等到...
等到外邦人的數目添滿了。 （罗11：25）