Book Review: Reformed Preaching by Joel Beeke
In 1 Timothy 1:5, the Apostle Paul reminded his disciple Timothy that “the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” Far from providing knowledge just for knowledge’s sake, Christian preaching is intended to raise the will and affections of hearers to a meaningful love for God and others. Yet, at the same time Christian preaching must be committed to biblically accurate and doctrinally precise instruction if such love is to be legitimate. Scripture is not only sweeter than honey (cf. Psa. 119:103), but sharper than swords (cf. Heb. 4:12). Sadly, a vast majority of modern preaching fails in one or both of these regards. This is especially true among those who, recognizing these two errors, wrongly conclude that the solution is somewhere in the middle—as if to imply that good preaching should just be partly precise and partly pastoral.
In reality, the truth is not “somewhere in the middle” of these two “extremes,” but rather in the marrying of them. The kind of preaching Paul called Timothy to, and the kind that churches today are desperately in need of, is preaching that is exegetically tight and emotionally warm—preaching that has the light of exposition and the heat of exhortation.
Reformed Experiential Preaching
Pastor, seminary president, and author Dr. Joel Beeke addresses this dilemma with the concept called “Reformed experiential preaching,” a phrase which also serves as the title of his five-hundred page treatise that answers, illustrates, and expounds upon this premise.
According to Beeke,
We've all heard sermons that sound more like a lecture, filling the head but not the heart. And we've all heard sermons tailored to produce an emotional experience, filling the heart but not the head. But biblical preaching both informs minds and engages hearts—giving it the power to transform lives. By the Spirit's grace, biblical preaching brings truth home from the heart of the preacher to the heart of the hearer.[1]
To that end, Beeke speaks of Reformed experiential preaching as follows:
Reformed experiential preaching explains how things ought to go in the Christian life (the ideal of Romans 8), how they actually go in Christian struggles (the reality of Romans 7), and the ultimate goal in the kingdom of glory (the optimism of Revelation 21-22). This kind of preaching reaches people where they are in the trenches and gives them tactics and hope for the battle.[2]
He also says, “Reformed experiential preaching grounded in the Word of God is God centered (theocentric) rather than man centered (anthropocentric).”[3] And, “An experiential preacher addresses the whole range of the Christian's experience by preaching through the whole range of Scripture.”[4] In other words, Reformed experiential preaching is grounded in the historic commitment to exegetical precision, but doesn't end there—it blossoms into the pastoral warmth demonstrated in the ministries of many Reformers throughout the centuries.
Three Major Sections
Beeke’s book is divided up into three major parts.
The first part, entitled “Part 1: Reformed Experiential Preaching Defined and Described,” does just that: he explains what he means by the term, how it differs from much of modern preaching, and what its major elements are. Rather than depicting this concept of preaching as a product of human invention, Beeke explains how it finds its basis in both the Old Testament prophets and New Testament apostles. For example, Beeke points out that Paul commanded Timothy to teach doctrine and drive its truth to the hearers via reproof, rebuke, and exhortation, but Beeke also points out that the command given to Isaiah from God was, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.” In this way, among others that he points out, Scripture supports the aforementioned notion that legitimate preaching must contain both elements—light and heat—in full doses. Beek goes on to describe that this results in a kind of preaching that includes an emphasis on Christ-centeredness, a commitment to the sovereignty of God, and a liberating impact on hearers.
The second part, entitled “Part 2: Reformed Experiential Preaching Illustrated,” represents an astounding amount of scholarship, as Beeke chronicles the ministries of preachers beginning with Zwingli, Bullinger, and Oecolampadius at the time of the Protestant Reformation all the way to Martyn Lloyd-Jones in the twentieth century. In this part, which describes the ministries of several preachers I previously had little familiarity with, Beeke provides a brief introduction to the historical background of the preacher, then examines the preacher’s methodology, and finally, considers the way in which his ministry impacted the hearts and minds of his hearers. What I found especially helpful about this section is that it put “flesh and bones” on Beeke’s explanation of Reformed experiential preaching. For example, in the section describing William Perkins, Beeke explained how Perkins mentally divided his hearers into seven categories in order to give distinct applications to people of different spiritual conditions (a technique referred to as “discriminatory preaching”).[5] Beeke then traced out how Perkins would essentially “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable,” preaching doctrine, Law/Gospel, repentance/faith, and Christ as would be appropriate to each category of hearer. And of course, Perkins is just one example (of over two dozen!) that Beeke analyzes, each with their own distinct historical situation, pastoral concerns, and preaching practices.
The third part is entitled “Part 3: Preaching Experientially Today.” Having explained what the concept is, and examined faithful men of God throughout history, Beeke ends by providing practical principles for those of us today to implement. One principle I particularly appreciated was “letting Scripture set the agenda.” Here, Beeke says, “We must preach the whole counsel of God without apology and without regret or reservation. Remember, we are merely the messengers of God and ministers of his Word.”[6] Another principle that I found impactful was to “never be ashamed of the Word of God.” In this section, Beeke says, “Another trap to avoid is to preach the text and then to add so many qualifications that it loses its force. Preach the main thrust of each text. After the Dutch Nadere Reformatie subsided in the eighteenth century, it became too common for a preacher to give a brief exposition of a text, but then spend most of his time filling in everything it did not say.”[7] This final part, as well as the book itself, ends with a chapter regarding preaching for holiness, containing excellent wisdom concerning the characteristics of holiness, the preacher’s holiness, and practical ways for the congregation to pursue holiness.
Whether you are a pastor leading a congregation, or a parent leading a family, this book can help you be a more effective communicator of God’s Word. And to that noble end, I highly commend it to you.
References:
[1] Joel Beeke, Reformed Preaching (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018)
[2] Ibid., 25.
[3] Ibid., 33.
[4] Ibid., 35.
[5] Ibid., 170.
[6] Ibid., 358.
[7] Ibid., 361.