Preaching the Old Testament with Confidence
Chapter 2: Written for Our Example: Preaching Old Testament Narratives
Paul House
One of the joys and burdens of expository preaching, as Kent Hughes practices, is that this approach requires preachers to construct sermons from the whole Bible, both Old Testament and New Testament. When my wife, Heather, and I became members of College Church in 2001, Dr. Hughes was preaching through Genesis, and he was doing a marvelous job. More than once in personal conversations he mentioned how hard he worked to know exactly how to present the elements of the Genesis narratives. I think that the struggles of this gifted veteran preacher indicate that Old Testament narrative constitutes one of the more difficult genres for expository preachers to use in their pulpit ministries. This assertion may sound odd at first, since these narratives reveal many compelling characters involved in key moments in Israelite and world history, which is in fact salvation history. But I have found such difficulty to be the case as I have explored the wider world of conservative Christian circles. Indeed, I have found it fairly rare to find preachers proclaiming these portions of Scripture at all,1 despite the large number of narrative passages in the Old Testament.
There are some fairly legitimate reasons why preachers hesitate to preach from these passages with any regularity. Some preachers may think that there are other passages that are more important for their churches to consider. Also, some expositors may find it hard to derive effective applications from these passages, because the texts themselves do not always divulge how they apply to believers. As a result, some preachers find themselves simply retelling the story or retelling the story and offering simplistic moralistic comparisons between the people in the text and their people. Furthermore, several of the narrative books are quite long, making it difficult to sustain a passage-by-passage series for the amount of time it takes to preach through the entire book. Finally, some of the individual stories in narrative are likewise very lengthy, even when divided into scenes, and current congregations are rarely trained to read and focus on long sections of the Bible.
I believe that there are at least three fundamental systemic problems that must be addressed before preaching from Old Testament narratives becomes more common. First, even many conservative expositors have been trained to wonder if the Old Testament is worth the effort, since it is much easier to "apply the New Testament to hearers' lives." In my opinion, it is important for preachers to consider whether this is the proper way to understand our relationship to the Bible. Second, although conservative expositors believe quite rightly that the Bible is inerrant, they do not always act as if they believe the entire Bible is useful for Christian living. They need to recall some key principles about the Bible's origins and purposes. Third, many expositors are not clear as to how the Old Testament participates in the Bible's grand narrative. They are not sure how to conceive of the Bible as a unity and therefore lack a grasp of the Bible's wholeness.
This essay seeks to address these difficulties by examining our attitude toward the connection between Scripture and life, by offering some key principles concerning the Old Testament's usefulness, and by exploring the Bible's overall narrative structure. No amount of excellent commentaries, published sermons, handbooks, and articles on how to analyze these texts will result in more attention to these largely neglected passages, though such works are needed. Indeed, high quality works of these types have existed for some time. Without a fundamental change of perspective, it is unlikely a larger number of preachers will use the wonderful tools at their disposal for unlocking the riches of Old Testament narrative.
Old Testament Narratives and Application
One of the most repeated and yet ultimately unbiblical notions among Christians is the idea that preaching the Old Testament as God's Word for today must be treated as a particular type of legitimate problem to solve. Stated simply, preachers and hearers often act as if the Old Testament has something special to prove before it should be heard as Christian Scripture. Like many other teachers, preachers, and commentators, for years I offered rationales for reading, hearing, and studying the Old Testament based on an unwitting acquiescence to this belief. I did so with the good intention, or so I conceived it, of helping students and parishioners "apply the Bible to their lives." I wanted them to benefit from the Old Testament in ways I had appreciated it in my own life.
After years of trying to explain why the Old Testament matters for believers, I came to two basic conclusions. First, the New Testament writers do not treat the Old Testament as a problem to be solved but rather as God-breathed sacred writing (Scripture) to be obeyed (2 Tim. 3:16; see below). Second, when I incorrectly treated the Old Testament as the problem instead of putting upon my hearers a responsibility to obey the Old Testament, I actually made it harder for my students and parishioners to come to terms with the whole Word of God. Even though many Christians believe that the Old Testament must prove itself relevant before they are ready to consider it, it is unhelpful to these people to condone what is after all an erroneous and ultimately rebellious presupposition. Instead of accepting a common misconception, we are well advised to help people replace their incorrect presupposition with correct ones and then aid them in reading the Bible effectively.
The most important presupposition to give people today is that we, not the Bible, have something to prove. As Christopher Wright has argued, all of us must learn that the Christian life is not a matter of our becoming convinced of the benefits associated with "applying the Bible to our lives." Rather, we must realize and we must preach the opposite. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we must learn and help others learn to "apply our lives to the Bible." God and his Word - not our lives and minds - comprise the horizon of reality and authority. We are required to conform to the Scriptures; they are not required to conform to us.2
Preachers must see their task as aiding their congregations in the process of applying their lives to the whole Bible. They must lead hearers to ask God in what ways he wishes their lives to matter by obeying his Word. In this way, they can obey God and learn what Paul means when he writes in 1 Corinthians that the Old Testament was written "for our sake" (9:10), "as examples for us" (10:6), and "for our instruction" (10:11). Without this starting point, preachers may be unaware that they are presenting the Word of God in a way that leaves hearers thinking they may pick and choose the parts they consider most valuable, or the parts that a preacher or teacher has redeemed from the ash heap by proving them worthy of consideration.
The Usefulness of Old Testament Narrative
Once the horizon of reality and obedience are fixed, those who preach from Old Testament narrative should keep some basic steadying principles about the Old Testament's accuracy and usefulness in mind. These principles will encourage new preachers to approach any biblical text with the assurance that it is something their congregations need. These principles may help veteran expository preachers avoid capitulating to the temptation to ignore the Old Testament in their preaching program. They might even keep both old and new preachers from shelving expository preaching of narratives for trendier, yet less biblically saturated and thus ultimately less helpful, approaches to preaching these passages.
I derive these principles from Paul's assertions about the Scriptures in 2 Timothy 3:16 because it is a classic statement of how the Bible coheres with the consistency of God's character and testifies to his helpful dealings with his people as revealed in the Bible. I also use principles from the New Testament at this point, because these writers were, like us, Christians seeking to preach and obey God's Word written as found in what we call the Old Testament. The passage is as follows: "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness."
In this passage Paul states his twofold conviction that the Bible is perfect and pure on the one hand and therefore useful on the other. This conviction is also found in key Old Testament passages (such as Ps. 19:7-14) that summarize the nature of Scripture. Paul's comments to Timothy about the Scriptures comprise a summary statement of how New Testament writers viewed the Old Testament, including its narratives, when they preached from its contents, for Jesus and Peter also agree with Paul's statements about the Scriptures (John 5:39; 2 Pet. 1:20-21).
Paul tells Timothy that "all Scripture is breathed out by God" (2 Tim. 3:16). There is little doubt that by "all Scripture" Paul means at least the whole Old Testament. He may also include at least some of what we know as the New Testament. After all, Peter calls Paul's letters part of "the Scriptures" (2 Pet. 3:16), so Paul may have had a similar opinion of Peter's writing and/or that of other apostles. William Mounce observes that the phrase "breathed out by God" indicates "the origin of every single element of the OT comes from God."3 D. B. Knox adds that God's being the Bible's source means that the "Holy Scripture, since it is the word of God, is true in respect to all the things that God is saying through it. It will be infallible, that is to say, utterly reliable; it cannot be broken or proved wrong; it must be fulfilled."4 In other words, the Old Testament is coherent and completely trustworthy, or inerrant, in every aspect of what it teaches because it comes from God, who is completely coherent and trustworthy.5
This last conclusion means, among other things, that the Old Testament cannot contradict itself. As Jesus says, "Scripture cannot be broken" (John 10:35), by which he means Scripture is not pitted against itself in interpretation. Furthermore, the Old Testament cannot be contradictory to the New Testament, since God's character lies behind both. As Article 7 of the 39 Articles of the Anglican Communion asserts, "The Old Testament is not contrary to the New: for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to Mankind by Christ, who is the only mediator between God and Man. Wherefore they are not to be heard, which feign that the old Fathers did look only for transitory promises." The Article then distinguishes between the moral and ceremonial law, noting the Christian's duty to obey the moral law and implying that the ceremonial law has much to teach us as well.
Paul does not stop his exhortation to Timothy with his comments on the Bible's origins, coherence, and truthfulness. He proceeds to address the reasons God gave a revelation that so closely adheres to his own nature. Since the Scriptures are "breathed out by God," they are "profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness." God's perfect Word was given so that God's people could learn to obey him. Mounce writes that the word translated "teaching" (cf. 1 Tim. 1:10) is a technical term in the Pastoral Epistles "for the doctrinal formulation of Scripture (cf. especially 1 Tim. 4:13). It, not myths, is the basis of Timothy's ministry, as Paul emphasizes elsewhere (cf. Rom. 15:4)."6 Mounce adds, "Scripture is the standard of truth, the pattern of truth (2 Tim. 1:13). Timothy is to guard it (2 Tim. 1:14) by using it to convict error."7 Thus, "teaching" indicates the totality of what the Bible teaches on all subjects it addresses. This "teaching" constitutes the Bible's definition and application of key themes such as sin, salvation, the people of God, judgment of sin, and the coming of the kingdom of God at the end of world history.
This teaching is profitable for offering "reproof" to the people of God. The Greek word translated as "reproof" (elegmos) does not appear elsewhere in the New Testament, though 1 Timothy 5:20 and 2 Timothy 4:2 use cognates. Though it is possible that the term means "the conviction of false doctrine," as Mounce believes,8 there may be other options related to this definition that are more precise. I. Howard Marshall writes that the term means "getting a person to realize that they have done wrong," and cites the Septuagint translation of Numbers 5:18-22 as evidence for his comment.9 There elegmos appears when the water in the prescribed ritual is defined. Thus, in 5:18-19, the phrase translated "water of bitterness" in the English Standard Version could be translated "water of reproof." The ritual has a clear reproving purpose, so the latter translation is defensible.
Marshall could have added the fact that the Septuagint translation of Leviticus 19:17 includes elegmos in its description of how to treat one's neighbor. Moses tells Israel to avoid slander (19:16) and hating a neighbor in one's heart (19:17). Instead, one should reprove a neighbor openly and honestly (19:17) as a way of proving love for that neighbor (19:18). The context of Leviticus 19:16-18 coincides with Paul's context nicely, since both describe how to aid others in walking with God. It seems likely that Paul tells Timothy that the Bible does what Leviticus 19:17 encourages Israel to do: speak to the person in a reasonable and loving manner so that behavior can change, love can shape the relationship, and fellowship can continue. "Teaching," or "doctrine," supports and demands as much.
The Bible's teaching is also profitable "for correction." This is the only appearance of this word in the New Testament. Marshall writes that its basic lexical meaning is "correction, restoration, improvement," and that the flow of the passage from "reproof" to "correction" is a natural progression from the conviction of sin "to the recovery of the sinner to a better life."10 T. D. Lea adds, "The term . . . suggests that Scripture helps individuals to restore their doctrine or personal practice to a right state before God. Correction is one means God uses in order to restore people to spiritual positions they have forfeited. This emphasis frequently appears in the wilderness experience of Israel (see Deut. 8:2-3, 5)."11 Thus, when the Bible offers "correction," it is not simply for the purpose of addressing someone's faults to point out wrongdoing. Rather, it is for the purpose of changing behavior in order to restore that person to a proper relationship with God. The Bible both points out error and offers examples of how errors may be expunged and right living before God renewed.
Finally, the Scriptures are profitable for "training in righteousness." The word translated "training," paideia, involves discipline, correction, and instruction for the purpose of educating a person in a path of life.12 It "means the rule of a good and holy life."13 As Lea summarizes the matter, "A final use of Scripture is to provide moral training that leads to righteous living. This positive purpose is expressed by a term (paideia) that also appears in Ephesians 6:4 ("training"). There it denotes a system of discipline used by a parent to develop a Christian character in a child. Here it describes a system of discipline in Scripture that leads to a holy life-style."14 The Bible does not simply offer a set of rules to be consulted in every situation, though it does include commands. Instead, it accepts the fact that a set of rules cannot address every situation that might arise in one's lifetime and emphasizes a biblically informed pattern of living that believers embrace and practice. Persons who have learned this principle have embraced the exhortation John Calvin offers at the end of his sermon on 2 Samuel 1:21-27: "In the end, let us learn how to govern ourselves in such a manner that he may rule over us, and have complete mastery and superiority. And may we not only be governed by the written laws, but may we have such obedience to his Word that it may cause us to conform ourselves entirely to it."15
Paul strongly implies that the Bible divulges a way of life that requires reading, reflection, the reception of teaching, hard thinking, application, and experience. This way of life is deepened in community and by the presence of teachers instructing in both formal and informal settings. These teachers may differ in a variety of ways, but they must all be deeply committed to the fact that the Bible trains them and their pupils in a specific pattern.
As has been implied in the preceding paragraphs, this specific pattern of training is "in righteousness." Mounce notes that here this term "is not only a gift bestowed but also a virtue to be sought (cf. 1 Tim. 6:11; 2 Tim. 2:22), the latter being emphasized in the PE [Pastoral Epistles] owing to their practical emphasis."16 The context does not indicate that the believer's pattern of life is a training leading to the reception of righteousness by that person's merits but rather the development of a pattern of life in which a believer learns to practice "righteous behavior (cf. Eph. 4:24)."17 The same source that lies behind the Scriptures empowers the believer to live in such a manner: The Holy Spirit.
When believers hear the Bible preached, they have the opportunity to learn God-breathed patterns of teaching (doctrine). When necessary, this teaching reproves them as one reproves a neighbor one loves (Lev. 19:16-18). Believers who open their minds and lives to reproof then have the chance to have their beliefs and behavior corrected and their relationship with God and God's people restored. Those who make a habit of gaining doctrine, reproof, and correction from the Bible and from biblical preachers learn permanent patterns that they practice in order to maintain righteous ways of living. In short, they have begun to gain what God wishes them to gain from the Bible. The preacher's task is to help hearers arrive at this point regularly and to a growing extent over a lifetime of Christian service. What preachers must never doubt is that all Scripture is part of this development of healthy Christian belief and behavior. They do not have to make the Old Testament part of this process; it is already part of the process by divine inspiration and declaration.
The Narrative Shape of the Old Testament in Apostolic Preaching
Preachers need a sense of the Bible's wholeness if they are to present any portion of the Bible in both its immediate and broader context. Part of this wholeness lies in the Scriptures' common story line. This story line includes key characters, events, and themes that span from creation to new creation, as William Dumbrell has observed.18 These elements provide the data from which the Bible's theological wholeness comes. Therefore, preachers do not need to shape the Bible into a coherent narrative; they simply need to recognize the narrative the Bible provides for itself.
One way of seeing the Bible's narrative wholeness is to examine the apostolic preaching described in Acts, for these sermons often include a grand narrative that traces the Christian story from Old Testament times until the time the sermon is preached.19 Such recounting of the great events of salvation history is in continuity with the several similar summaries that appear in every segment of the Old Testament. I have surveyed some of those Old Testament passages elsewhere, so I will not analyze them here.20 Rather, I will note the ways that Stephen and Paul use this grand narrative to address three very different audiences. My goal is to encourage expository preachers to see that the Bible itself divulges the larger narrative to which shorter narratives contribute and also to encourage them to use narratives to help hearers live the Christian life.
Acts 7:2-54: Stephen's Narrative of Rebellious Israelites
In Acts 6:5 Luke identifies Stephen as one of the men chosen to handle the daily distribution of aid to widows and describes him as "full of faith and the Holy Spirit." In 6:8 Luke adds that Stephen was "full of grace and power" and that he was "doing great wonders and signs among the people." This ministry led to disputes with the temple council (6:9-15). When asked by the high priest to give the council an account of his beliefs (7:1) to answer the accusation brought against him, that he taught that Jesus would destroy the temple (6:14), Stephen offered a message that explained his commitment to Jesus (7:2-53).
This message begins with Abraham (7:2-8), a logical choice since the audience was Jewish, probably dominated by Sadducees and politically motivated clerics, and quite aware of the biblical story line. At least some of this group were therefore likely to have considered the Pentateuch the only binding Scripture, and they were quite interested in Stephen's views on the temple's purpose and future (6:14). Stephen continues by recounting episodes in the lives of the patriarchs and Moses (7:9-44) before turning to the tabernacle and Solomon's temple. This summary of Israel's story is punctuated by comments about negative events, such as the jealousy of Joseph's brothers (7:9), the majority of Israel's rejection of Moses (7:35, 39), and the golden calf incident (7:40-43). Stephen adds his belief that the temple is important, yet not the place where the Creator actually dwells (7:44-50). He then concludes by connecting his hearers to the wicked people of the past, noting that their fathers killed the prophets and they have killed the Messiah, "the Righteous One" (7:51-52). He accuses them of not obeying the law they say was "delivered by angels" (7:53). Of course, his sermon leads to his martyrdom (7:54-60).
In this narrative-driven sermon, Stephen makes several important choices. He does not stray beyond the Scriptures his audience accepts as coming from God. He chooses episodes from Israel's story that address the subject the council set before him, yet in a way that includes examples of the sort of rebellion he believes them guilty of currently. He ends with Jesus but assumes that his listeners know his beliefs about the recent death and resurrection of Jesus. He does not feel the need to include Jesus in Old Testament stories that do not address the Messiah, but he does preach to that point in history, for it is the climax of the story. He conceives of Israel's rebellion and its manifestation in his day as a terrible, yet highly instructive, narrative. He certainly uses this narrative to attempt to teach, reprove, correct, and train his hearers in the ways of Scripture. There is no record of anyone accepting his message, but in an excellent bit of foreshadowing Luke notes that a young man named Saul heard the sermon (7:58).
Acts 13:13-49: Paul's Narrative of God's Message of Salvation
During his first missionary journey, Paul preached in the synagogue at Antioch of Pisidia. His audience consisted of Jews and God-fearers (13:16, 26) who worshiped there regularly, so it is likely he expected from the crowd a fair amount of biblical knowledge. He did not address persons with little or no understanding of the Old Testament, as he did in Lystra (14:8-18) and Athens (17:16-34; see below). Indeed, he spoke in a context in which passages from the Law and Prophets had already been read (13:15). Like Stephen in Acts 7:2-54, he tailored his message to the audience at hand through means of presenting an overarching narrative that included his hearers.
Paul begins by mentioning briefly the patriarchs, the exodus, and Israel's wilderness years (13:17-18). Next, he proceeds to summarize the conquest of Canaan and the era of the judges so that he can reach the point of Israel's request for a king (13:19-21a). Paul then introduces David as the king through whom God gave Israel a Savior, whom he identifies as Jesus (13:21b-23). Interestingly, he includes in his narrative a statement about John the Baptist's testimony to Jesus (13:24-25), which may indicate that some in the congregation had knowledge of John's ministry or had even received "the baptism of John" (Acts 18:25). If so, Paul wants these people to understand that what the Old Testament and John promised had come to pass.
Having set the stage for the major portion of his sermon, Paul proceeds to present Jesus' life and ministry for the purpose of pressing upon the congregation their need to believe the "message of this salvation" (13:26). First, he asserts that the leaders in Jerusalem did not accept Jesus because they did not understand the Scriptures. In an extreme irony, they did not understand the Scriptures, but they "fulfilled them by condemning him" (13:27). Second, Paul claims that though Jesus was not worthy of death, the ones who did not understand the Scriptures asked the Roman official Pilate to crucify him. Pilate obliged, and afterwards Jesus was buried (13:28-29).
Third, Paul proceeds to the irreplaceable core of the Christian message: the resurrection.21 He proclaims, "But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people" (13:30-31; see 1 Cor. 15:3-7). The import of this fact is that Paul brings them "the news" (the gospel), the divine proclamation, that God has fulfilled his promise of sending a messiah and raising him from the dead. Paul cites Psalms 2 and 16 to confirm his point (13:32-35). He says Jesus' resurrection makes him the greatest figure in Israel's history, for it places him above David (13:36-37) and Moses (13:39).
Fourth, Paul explains the meaning of the story he has related. Hearers should know that through Jesus, forgiveness of sins is possible (13:38). What "the law of Moses" could not do (because it was not its purpose), Jesus has done. He has removed sin forever (13:38-39). Thus, the congregation must believe (13:38) and not harden its hearts at this message, the very danger the prophet Habakkuk, whom Paul quotes, warned Israel to avoid (13:40-41; Hab. 1:5). Unbelief will lead them to "perish" (13:41), for judgment approaches, just as it did in Habakkuk's day. What makes Paul's news "good news" is that his "news is not only of the judgment but more significantly of salvation in that judgment."22 Paul's hearers can avoid repeating the negative aspects of the narrative Paul presents. They can participate in a new ending to the story they have heard.
Interestingly, the story Luke tells about Paul telling the biblical story continues in the description of the people's reaction to the message. Apparently many persons believed, or at least wished very much to hear more (13:42-43). So Paul preached the next Sabbath, drawing large crowds (13:44) but also much criticism and opposition. Luke writes, "But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him" (13:45).
Given this response, Paul claims that God's Word had to be proclaimed to Jews first, but the Jews' rejection of the message, which amounted to a repetition of the negative parts of Israelite history, means it is time to take the message to the Gentiles (13:46). God has made the apostles servants of the Suffering Servant, so they must do what he came to do: be "a light for the Gentiles, that [they] may bring salvation to the ends of the earth" (13:47; citing Isa. 49:6). The story of God's salvation of people from sin and judgment must go "to the ends of the earth," and the apostles and their team members are God's means of doing just that. The reaction to Paul's ending of the narrative is threefold: "as many as were appointed to eternal life believed" (13:48), the Word of God spread throughout that region (13:49), and those who did not believe persecuted the apostles, driving them from the area (13:50-51).
There are several important implications of Paul's sermon for today's preachers. First, like Stephen, the apostle Paul conceived of salvation history as a connected series of events that explain what happened in world and Israelite history as depicted in God's Word. Jesus and his apostles and their ministries to Israel and the Gentiles are the latest installment of that story, but these are not unexpected or illegitimate additions to the story, for the Scriptures had already stated that they would minister God's news of redemption from sin and judgment. Second, Paul uses the Scriptures to teach, reprove, correct, and train his hearers in God's ways. He wants them to realize what God has done, believe it, and move forward in the grace of God, which is following Jesus. Third, Paul has no qualms about drawing analogies between his audience and the people described in the Old Testament. He feels very comfortable applying their lives to Scripture. Fourth, Jesus is at the center of the narrative, yet he is not the whole narrative. He is also not inserted into every phase of the narrative. Abraham, Moses, David, and Paul have their parts as well. These other characters and their story are sub-stories within the great story. Not telling their stories impoverishes an understanding of Jesus' story and of the story of final redemption and resurrection that Jesus will complete. Inserting Jesus at the wrong places can lead to a diminishing of what he achieved. Of course, leaving Jesus out would leave an unfinished story that lacks the possibility of the sort of good news Paul offers.
Acts 17:22-31: Paul's Narrative of the Creator and the Resurrection
This brief passage is often used to demonstrate ways to present the gospel to persons who do not have extensive backgrounds in Christianity. This emphasis is appropriate, since Paul speaks to "Epicurean and Stoic philosophers" (17:18) and those they assemble (17:19) to hear his new (to them) teaching. The narrative he shapes for this audience begins at a different place from the one he gives in the synagogue in Acts 13:13-41, but it ends at the same place as the one offered to a more biblically literate audience.
Having perceived their religious, yet idolatrous, context, Paul begins his recounting of the biblical narrative with creation. He identifies "the unknown god" to which the Athenians have erected an altar (17:22-23) as the creator of the universe (17:24). The Creator is a spirit, does not live in a temple, and does not need sacrifices to survive (17:24-25). The Creator made all of humanity from one man, and the Creator rules all people (17:26). All that Paul has said so far coincides with the Old Testament's theology of creation, which in turn fuels the Old Testament's insistence that there is only one living and true God.
Paul then asserts that the import of his creation doctrine is that people should seek and find this Creator, who alone is God (17:27). He claims God is not far away but, rather, quite close, as some of their philosophers and poets have written (17:28). In order to find the Creator, people must reject notions and rituals that connect him to images (17:29). They must turn away from such notions ("repent"), for God has fixed a day of judgment, has chosen a man to be the judge on that day, and has raised that man from the dead to assure people of his intentions (17:30-31).
Paul's message to the Athenians shares some key aspects of the narrative he and Stephen have already preached in Acts and displays one clear difference. Like the other messages, it moves from a beginning point to a clear conclusion. It seeks to move hearers to faith in Jesus. It includes judgment and the resurrection as indispensable components of the Christian message. It begins where the hearers are in relationship to their understanding of the Bible and their need for salvation. It differs in where it begins, for it starts with the audience's belief in creation, asserts the biblical doctrine of creation, and concludes with what will eventually happen to creation. Paul's use of creation here is not a theological innovation, for his hearers in Acts 13 would have agreed with his account of creation theology based on their knowledge of passages like Genesis 1-2, Isaiah 40-48, and Jeremiah 10:1-16.
Conclusion
Expository preachers should take their sense of the Bible's grand narrative from these descriptions of early Christian preaching. Stephen and Paul preached an account of salvation history that encompasses God's good work from creation to final judgment. This work includes the covenants with Israel and the nations that were given to Abraham, Moses, and David. It includes the sending of Jesus the Messiah and his life, death, and resurrection. It includes a coming judgment that all persons must face. Stephen and Paul also stressed the necessity of hearers' displaying a right response to God's message that can be summarized as believing in Jesus, which means believing in all that has been said about Jesus. Their message required those who believed to join the community of those who believed and to live according to that community's standards.23 This believing response was rooted in their belief in the resurrection and its connection to judgment.24 Other themes were included in their preaching, but these comprise the core of the biblical narrative.
Preachers should keep this sweeping narrative in mind as they preach through any narrative segment of the Bible. They will then be in a position to do what Stephen and Paul did, which was to apply the lives of their hearers to the biblical narrative in a manner that instructed, reproved, corrected, and trained those who believed their message, which was indeed God's message. They will be prepared to mine the text at hand for life-changing teaching and to set that text in its proper place in the overall biblical story line. They will be prepared to preach about Jesus from any text without inserting Jesus into texts that do not mention him or the messianic promise.
Preaching the Old Testament with Confidence
Embracing the principles I have outlined in this essay will not solve all the expositor's problems related to preaching Old Testament narratives. There will still be hard exegetical work to do. Translations from the Hebrew, as well as fruitful analysis of the passage's genre, structure, theology, and chief means of instructing, reproving, correcting, and training still must be attained from the text. Congregations must still be taught to read, hear, and engage in longer passages of the Bible. Preachers must still read, reflect, and pray. In other words, the sort of struggle Kent Hughes had in preaching Genesis will continue in the lives of careful and caring expositors. There is no easy road in this process.
In this essay I have encouraged preachers to believe that the effort is definitely worth the price they will pay and that to believe these principles is a first step to paying this price. I have asserted that what preachers have in the Old Testament narratives is truly astounding. They have God's promise that what they share with their hearers is breathed out by the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit who convicts hearts and teaches believers. They have the great purpose of being God's instrument for training God's people in the path of faithful living. They have a great narrative that incorporates all human beings and all human history into a story that leads sinners to be saved and believers to sanctification. They have many great examples of smaller narratives that fit into this grand narrative that can help hearers in personal ways. They have a means of seeing how the Bible is a unified literary and theological work. Since such is the case, preachers may have the confidence that as they preach the whole Bible, they will see God do his work in his people through his Word. In short, I think we must not let an unstated lack of faith in God's Word become a stumbling block for preaching all of God's true, helpful Word so that disciples may apply their lives to its large and small narratives.