The Supremacy of God in Preaching

I love good books, and I love recommendations for good books. So, in an effort to support what I love, I'm going to offer some book reviews - one that I finished today, and several others that I have finished recently but haven't reviewed.

In preparation to preach (which has been rescheduled to September 3), I have read The Supremacy of God in Preaching by John Piper.

At 105 pages, this is one of the shortest Piper books I've read. Perhaps because it is so short, he gets straight to the point, and develops it well.
In typical fashion, Piper lays the theological foundation before he gets practical. The goal of preaching, he says, is the glory of God; the ground of preaching is the Cross of Christ; and the gift of preaching is the power of the Holy Spirit.

His section on the Holy Spirit is particularly helpful because he points out that we honor the Spirit by honoring His Word, and by relying on Him to communicate through us - avoiding the perils of academic study, and groundless 'Spirit-led' preaching. It closes with very practical counsel on how to rely on the Spirit in the very act of preaching.

Part 2 of the book is called How to Make God Central in Preaching and extracts 10 principles from the life of Jonathan Edwards. Edwards' preaching was marked by authority and power, and he had a deeply spiritual and Scriptural eye for discerning genuine religious experience. I'll simply enumerate them here:

1. Stir up holy affections


2. Enlighten the mind


3. Saturate with Scripture


4. Emply analogies and images


5. Use threat and warning


6. Plead for a response


7. Probe the workings of the heart


8. Yield to the Holy Spirit in prayer


9. Be broken and tenderhearted


10. Be intense

This is an excellent read on what preaching can, and ought to be. Look for quotes to come . . .