49 Quotes About Sermons

Theology is not a private subject for theologians only. Nor is it a private subject for professors. Fortunately, there have always been pastors who have understood more about theology than most professors. Nor is theology a private subject of study for pastors. Fortunately, there have repeatedly been congregation members, and often whole congregations, who have pursued theology energetically while their pastors were theological infants or barbarians. Theology is a matter for the Church.

I rather have a pastor that committed every horrible sin and repented, than a pastor that has no place of reference to preach redemption to a packed chapel full of sinners.

You and I read the same books and hear the same sermons and we come away with different messages. That has to be evidence of some serious problem, right?

Persecution for Christians is not a possibility, it's a promise, it's not a maybe, it's a surely! Following Jesus can mean finding the trouble you've been looking for!

One living demonstration of the gospel is far better than a hundred explanations of many sermons.

I repeat: the pressure to apply is a modernist pressure, not a biblical pressure. William Willimon observes that most congregations love hearing preaching with this application emphasis. The only problem, he says, is that such preaching is not biblical preaching. The 'subtext' of so much of this must-apply preaching is, 'You are gods unto yourselves. Through this insight, this set of principles, this well applied idea, you can save yourselves by yourselves'.

Race prejudice is contrary to every known principle of Christianity; that there is not to be found anywhere in the religion of Jesus Christ anything upon which it can stand, anything upon which it can be justified, or even extenuated.

There is a joy possible in this life, he [the apostle John] says. Your joy can be full in this world, and it is a joy that is based upon fellowship with God.

According to Scripture, the trouble with man by nature is not that he is incomplete but that he is dead.