THE NATURE OF GOD AND PREACHING

Abstract

Theology Proper defines the theology of preaching. The doctrine of the Trinity causes the doctrine of the kerygma. The work of preaching depends entirely on the doctrine of the Triune God. Biblical preaching is by nature Trinitarian preaching. The nature of the Triune God determines the nature of Holy Scripture and thus of true expository preaching. Augustine said: “when the Bible speaks, God speaks”. John Stott affirmed: “the kind of God we believe in, determines the kind of sermons we preach”.
In fact, biblical preaching is far more than a mere oratorical exercise; it is far more than just another activity among the many things Christians do on the Lord’s Day. The faithful proclamation of the Word of God is the very Word of God. This communication is not merely factual, but personal, life-giving, and transformational. When God’s Word is held forth in the power of the Spirit, through Christ-centered sermons, God is there. This reality changes everything.
The Trinity Himself reshapes our understanding of the work of preaching, mainly in the following three pillars:
the eternal, speaking nature of God defines the WHY of preaching (motivation);
the ongoing preaching activity of the Father and the perpetual testimony of the Spirit about Christ the Son, define the WHAT of preaching (content);
the Trinitarian chain of revelation defines the HOW of preaching (modality).
Drawing inspiration from the Trinitarian structure of John Calvin’s “institutes of the Christian Religion”, this paper is intentionally organized according to a Trinitarian pattern:
the Father, the source of preaching (why);
the Son, the content of preaching (what);
and the Spirit, the power and efficacy of preaching (how).
A larger portion of this essay will be intentionally dedicated to the first point, due to the nature of the assignment’s question, and because the motivation of biblical preaching is vital to drastically boosting our preaching, in its content and modality. It serves as the foundation that allows the other two pillars to stand firm and flourish.

Introduction

Samuel Renihan states that the doctrine of the Trinity is the foundation of every other branch of theology we might study. “In the theology of Calvin and the Reformed tradition, the Triune being of God came to constitute the shape of all Christian belief”. The theology of preaching, too, is built on the solid foundation of the Triune God.

We cannot fully know God: humble preaching

God is incomprehensible. We cannot fully grasp His essence. Our small cup, from which we draw our preaching, cannot contain the immense ocean of the Trinity. This awareness should lead us to humility in our approach to preaching. As limited creatures, we speak about – and on behalf of – the unlimited, transcendent, and eternal Creator. We must be careful, precise, and reverent in our communication, because we desire to be God’s mouthpiece, not satanic counterfeits. The infiniteness of God compels preachers to continue in diligent and prayerful theological study, in order to be always prepared to preach faithfully and “to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). The infinite nature of God leads to humble preaching.

We can know something about God: bold preaching

Even though we cannot fully know God, we can know something about Him, because of His free act of self-revelation. This is the foundation of bold preaching. Wellum states:

By nature, God is a communicative being as expressed in the two eternal, necessary processions of the Son from the Father and the Spirit from the Father and Son. But it is not necessary for God to speak to creatures. If it was, then the creation would be necessary to God—a contradiction of divine aseity and an undermining of the Creator-creature distinction. In God’s ad extra works, speaking the universe into existence and speaking to his creatures is a free act of God, not necessary to him.

Because God decided to take the initiative to make Himself known to us, we can covenantally enjoy His person. The monergistic revelation of the Trinity enables us to truly know Him, and to ‘know’ in the Bible means to be in relationship with Him. Therefore the mystery of God leads us to treasure the biblical data that He has graciously provided about Himself. What a privilege it is to know something of the magnificent Almighty! His revelatory initiative is the solid basis of theology and preaching. Wellum wrote:

Because God has sovereignly and freely spoken the universe into being ex nihilo, resulting in an ordered, designed, purposed universe, and he has spoken to us in a verbal and written form, we have true knowledge of God’s plan and promises and the world around us. As we “think God’s thoughts after him,” although we cannot know God, self, and the world exhaustively, we can know them truly (ectype), thus warranting objective truth and a normative theology…different views of God inevitably result in different views of Scripture… ​​[we must hold] pro-Nicene trinitarianism and the Reformed tradition since the God-word and the God-world relationship are inseparably intertwined.

Wellum continues:

What is the warrant for objective truth and the possibility of theology as a normative discipline? What is the transcendental condition for both? …it is the triune God (principium essendi) who speaks (principium cognoscendi). Both ‘foundations’ (principia) are necessary for truth and theology, and both are interrelated and inseparable.

Preachers must consider the supremacy of God while they speak and maintain the proper top-down logical order: God speaks and therefore we submit to Him, God is the center and therefore we interpret reality theocentrically, God is uncreated and therefore preachers must be careful when describing Him using created realities and analogical-human language. Letham states: “worship begins with God. The initiative is his, not ours. He calls us to worship; we respond. He speaks to us in his Word; we believe…our preaching and our prayers need to be intentionally trinitarian”. Moreover, since the highest God has condescended to speak to humankind as a stammering child, also preachers must teach plainly, avoiding unnecessary overly complicated jargon, so that every listener can appreciate God through His Word. God has spoken therefore we can preach boldly.

The WHY of preaching:
God communicates Himself by the preaching of the Word of God, which is the very Word of God

Preacher. God is a speaking God. As Francis Schaeffer affirmed: “He is there and He is not silent”. It is easy to underestimate this truth, but it is the primary peculiarity that distinguishes the true living Trinity from all other idols. Wellum expressed this well:

A crucial way that God is distinguished from idols as the true and living God is by divine speech, thus linking divine speech, or God’s word, to the very being of God…God, unlike the idols, is by nature the triune God who speaks.…in Hebrew 4 to speak of God’s word is to speak of God himself.…When we encounter the word of God, we encounter God. When we encounter God, we encounter his word. We cannot encounter God without the word, or the word without God. God’s word and his personal presence are inseparable… whenever God’s Word is spoken, read, or heard, God himself is there.

God cannot exist as a wordless being. Never. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1; Revelation 19:13). The Trinity has a proclaiming nature. The kerysso is rooted in the very being of God. Because God is a preacher from eternity, preaching is possible and even necessary.
Martin Luther, exegeting John 16:13, dared to say that God is eternally a preacher, because in eternity the Father is proclaiming a sermon to the Spirit, who is eternally a hearer. There is a pulpit in heaven and a pew: the Father preaches, and the Spirit listens to Him. I fully agree with Luther that the Trinity is an eternally speaking God, a never-without-words Godhead. But in order to avoid misunderstanding Luther’s argument – specifically, to avoid interpreting this idea of “the Father preaching to the Spirit in eternity” as implying an eternal subordination of the Spirit to the Father – I would supplement Luther’s position with Owen’s clarification, who advances the theological concept of the eternal covenant of redemption. Owen affirms: “This indicates a distinction among the persons, but not a devaluation of the Spirit. ‘Being the Spirit of the Father and Son, proceeding from both, he is equally participant of their counsels’, and thus such texts point to the Spirit’s infinite knowledge of the eternal counsels of the Father and Son; he is no stranger unto them”. The whole Trinity is united and undivided in His work, always acting together in perfect triunity, especially during the preaching of the Word. Of course, there are distinctive features in the trinitarian economy of redemption. “Distinct acting and operations of the persons grow out of this eternal mutual relation one to another”. But subordinationism must always be avoided. To properly exegete John 16, we must consider its context. In those chapters, Jesus is speaking about the ministry of the Spirit in time, in history, in His Trinitarian activity ad extra (not in the eternal ad intra life of God!). In the history of redemption – especially in the ‘last days’ – after Jesus’ ascension – the Holy Spirit is the Vicarius Christi, Christ’s substitute on earth, guiding the church in all the truth and continuing to reveal God’s person and will to His people, particularly to the Twelve Apostles, since the canon of Scripture had not yet been closed. Just as Jesus, in His incarnation, revealed the full glory of the Father, so too the Spirit continues to reveal the glory of Jesus, who brings glory to the Father – constituting a divine, revelatory chain that forms the foundation for how Trinitarian biblical preaching takes place (see the last section). Surely, the Holy Trinity is eternally speaking within Himself – among the Father, the Son and the Spirit – establishing the eternal covenant of redemption. Wellum affirms:

Even before God’s external acts, God planned all things from eternity according to his word. It is difficult to think of God’s decree apart from divine power and speech. In Reformed theology, related to God’s decree is the ‘covenant of redemption’ (pactum salutis), by which the triune persons agree to plan and execute the redemption of the elect, as one act but according to distinctive roles … However we think of the shared communication within God himself, the pactum salutis certainly assumes some kind of communication.

Preaching assumes a central role in the realization of God’s covenant of redemption in time: the covenant of grace, foreshadowed in the OT and fulfilled in Christ’s inauguration of the NT. The pactum salutis is realized in creation through the creative speech of God in Genesis, and through the following New Creation in the types and promises of the Old Covenant and in the fulfillment of the New Covenant of Jesus, the Word of God made flesh. The Trinity is a speaking God both in eternity and in history. He never stops preaching: “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God” (Hebrews 11:3) and “he upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3). In these last days, the Spirit of God commanded the Church to continue the preaching ministry of Christ, witnessing His resurrection, His new creation that will be consummated soon. Therefore preaching has a very broad frame. It is not an earthly, temporary, trendy PowerPoint presentation, but it is the eternal, Trinitarian, divine activity, performed also through His people. Because God speaks, we can and must speak. Because God is a preacher, we can be preachers. Letham states: “The Trinity must be preached and must shape preaching. Preaching is the high point of worship. Not only must the Trinity be preached, but all preaching must be shaped by the active recognition that the God whose word is proclaimed is triune. A Trinitarian mind-set must become as integral to the preacher as the air we breathe”.
The centrality of God’s Word is powerfully represented also graphically through the architecture of the “sacred space” during the biblical narrative, the special locations where God met His people. Within the Tabernacle and later in the Temple, there was God’s Word: the two tablets of stone of Sinai that were called “the tablet of testimony”. God Himself bore witness, preached by those inscriptions! Those tablets were God’s preaching manuscripts, and the propitiatory on the throne of God (the ark of the covenant) was the pulpit from which God spoke to Moses (and through him, to the whole congregation). As the Tabernacle was situated in the very center of Israel’s camp, also preachers must keep in high value the centrality of the Word of God, spiritually and (why not?!?) also physically: what about having an imposing pulpit with an open Bible, placed just in the middle of the place of worship, like many Reformers did?!? This is a great understanding of the work of preaching according to the speaking and covenantal nature of God who shows His חֶ֫סֶד to His people. God is love, the speaking Love. God always encountered His people by speaking to them: in the Garden of Eden, in the Tabernacle-Temple, in the Word made flesh, in the proclaiming church – the multilanguage temple of the Spirit of Pentecost. The Word of God is the “Holy Place” where God meets His elect, the true “sacred space” where heaven joins earth. Not just because of a subjective experience of revelation (as Barth understood), but because the intrinsically authoritative, supernatural, everlasting divine nature of God’s Word, breathed out from the very mouth of God Himself (2 Timothy 3:16), which does not depend on the recipient (the reader-listener) but it is divine in itself. “God’s identity and work are bound up in his word”. The preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God. Preachers act with the very authority of God who has sent them as His ambassadors, while they proclaim: “thus say the Lord of hosts!”. Jesus Christ is the personal Word of God, the Bible is the canonical Word, the preaching of the Word of God is the instrumental Word. Preaching “by its very nature, it is the instrumental means through which God comes down, speaks, and saves his people…it is the ongoing means through which God effectively speaks to his people”.

Personal. The Trinity is the personal God. He is not an impersonal, abstract, philosophical construct. Therefore preaching communicates the very person of God. Preaching is not merely sharing intellectual notions about God as in a Zwinglian conception, but it is God speaking personally through the mouth of a man and spiritually present in a Calvinistic understanding. Preachers do not present a distant God who is not in the room, but rather the personal God who is here while they preach! Preaching is not merely a memorial of God, but in the act of preaching, God is with us: preaching is the primary means of grace. As with every means of grace, the emphasis is on what God is doing through preaching, not on what men do. Wellum explains:

In contrast to neo-orthodox theology and current theology that is indebted to it, revelation is both propositional and personal…God taking the initiative to make himself known by his own self-communication…God’s word is inseparable from God’s own being. Indeed, the Word is also a title for the divine Son, and it is by his word that God accomplishes his ad extra works of creation, providence, redemption, and judgment…Frame first defines “the word of God” as God’s ‘self-expression’…the “word of God” is God’s personal presence with us. Even in human language it is difficult to separate a speaker from his words…like a wedding ceremony. When a man and a woman say the words, “I do,” these are not simply words. They are promises that enact the covenant relationship of marriage…God cannot be separated from his words…whenever God speaks, he himself is there with us as the omnipresent Lord.

God is depicted in Scripture as the bridegroom and God’s people are Christ’s bride. God establishes this covenantal, personal relationship through His Word: “God has revealed Himself to His people in order to have a relationship with them”. Eternal life is knowing the relational God (John 17:3) who desires: “I will be their God, and they will be my people”. If God were not Trinitarian, relationship, communication and love would not be possible. The preaching of the Word manifests the ‘Emmanuel’ nature of God with us. The Word of God is so personal, that even shapes God’s people’s identity: the church is under the authority of Scripture (Sola Scriptura), not the other way around, like Roman Catholicism affirms. In fact, this claim is the very spark that ignited the flame of Reformation in the 16th century. This is why, while Roman Catholic worship focuses on the mass and the altar (eucharistic and sacramental system), in contrast the evangelical-protestant worship is centered on the pulpit. Spiritual awakening in the Bible and church history (such as the Reformation and the great Revivals) was made possible only through the “resurrection” of biblical expository preaching. Venema says: “Christ’s dwelling in the midst of his people was understood to be primarily mediated through the proclamation of the gospel, and only secondarily through the administration of the sacrament”.

Living. God is a living God, therefore His Word continues to speak today, as He spoke in the past. The Bible is not a museum of ancient proverbs and dead sayings. No! The Word of God is still alive, living and active today because the God of the Word is the immortal and living God. With such confidence, preachers must proclaim God’s truth, acknowledging that the Word is still relevant today and it is life-changing. Written Scripture is not a substitute for God’s oral voice, but it is the voice of God today, when it is read and especially when it is preached: “God gave us the Bible, not to be silent now and let the Bible speak instead of Him…but that He Himself may through His word speak”.

Life-giving. God is a generating Being. In eternity the Father eternally generated the Son, and the Father and the Son together eternally spirate the Spirit. This flourishing and creative nature of God, who begets and spirates life, is displayed in Creation and new Creation. This budding nature of God is brought forth by His Word (Genesis 1, Psalm 33, 2 Corinthians 4:6). Without the eternal generation of the Son and the eternal spiration of the Spirit, the Trinity would not be able to grant life to creation. Therefore preachers are heralds of God’s creative, life-sustaining, and recreative Word. God’s Word is not mere notions and barren information. But it is life-giving spirit: “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life”, said Jesus (John 6:63). Preaching therefore is communicating God’s Word which conveys God’s life. The Trinity by the same Word performed both Creation and new Creation. Gospel salvation is in continuation with the primeval work of Genesis. Therefore the proclamation of the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus is the “power of God” (Rom 1:16), enabling dead sinners to be born again (1 Peter 1:23). It is not ordinary speech. But it is the supernatural, divine-appointed means through which protology came to pass and eschatology will be consumed. Preachers are called to be that means of grace who channel the life-giving Spirit of Christ.

Love. God is love. God is not merely able to love, as humans do by their unstable affection. But God is His perfections: God immutably and eternally is love. This means that God establishes justice according to His eternal decree, for good and for evil. God loves justice and hates sin. For good, God shows His favour to upright men, justified in Christ. For evil, God judges wicked men, without Christ. And how does God judge rebels? Speaking against them! By His Word! Therefore, preachers bring forth this double side of God’s Word: life and death, forgiveness and judgment, favour and enmity, grace and destruction. Preachers have not just the privilege to emanate the life-giving Word of the Creator, but also they must proclaim the accusatory Word of God, according to the dual aspect of the Gospel: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever rejects the Son will not see life. Instead, the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:35). This is an important balance that God’s nature stamps onto the understanding of the Word’s ministry.

Royal. The nature of the Trinity is a royal nature. God is King. Therefore the goal of preaching is to exalt the glory of God. In Isaiah 6, the vision of God’s kingship prompts the prophet to his preaching endeavor. Knowing God and beholding His glory are the engine for biblical proclamation. The royal nature of God is reflected in the goal of preaching: to restore the throne of God into the heart of sinful men. The very heart of the good news of the Gospel is: “your God reigns!” (Isaiah 52:7). Glad submission to the King Trinity, not forced submission, is what really glorifies God. Because God is not merely a tyrant who forces citizens into servile slavery, but He is a gracious King, only intentional and joyful servanthood is what fulfils the purpose of Creation: to saturate the cosmos with God’s glory by God’s image bearers. Adam failed to do that in Eden, and the necessity of a second and better Adam became clear: humanity lived in eschatological expectation since Genesis 3:15, awaiting the last Adam, the serpent crusher, who would have restored God’s universal dominion. The missional nature of the Trinity is the motivation of preaching, performed by heralds who proclaim the reconciliation of sinners to the King. The Father decreed in eternity to send forth the Son in the fullness of time, in the power of the Spirit, precisely “to bring good news to the poor…to proclaim liberty to the captives…to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Isaiah 61). God the Son, Jesus Christ, is ultimately a regal missionary preacher, revealing the proclaiming nature of the royal Trinity. Like Jesus, preachers must persevere in preaching to display God’s royal and glorious nature. When the preacher proclaims eternity instead of temporary matters, eternal new creation instead of old decadent creation, eternal beatific vision of the glorious throne of the Trinity instead of earthly businesses, then the eternal, most holy and transcendent reality of God takes place in the local church.

Immutable. Because God is immutable, without passions but only having unshakable perfections, His Word is eternal and His promises are trustworthy. He will not repent or change His mind. Preachers can preach with this unique confidence: their message is an immutable message and the claims they make are not empty promises like politicians, but are worth-believing words that surely will become reality because of God’s power and unshakable faithfulness (Isaiah 55:11).

The WHAT of preaching:
Preaching like God the Father and God the Spirit, who exalt Jesus, is by Christ-centered expository sermons

Not only the doctrine of God, but inevitably, also Christology strongly impacts the theology of preaching. Sermons, in order to be Trinitarian, must be Christ-centered in content. Human preaching must follow the preaching of the Father and of the Spirit, being centered in the Bible as a theological book: the Self-revelation of God, which climaxes in Christ (Colossians 1:15). It is primarily a theocentric treatise. Not anthropocentric. The Bible is a Christ-centered big story, from Genesis to Revelation. God’s purpose in speaking is to create and save sinners into New Creation. That is possible only in Christ, who is the “yes and amen of all promises of God” (2 Corinthians 1:20). About Christ, both the Father preaches: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, listen to Him!”, and the Spirit bears witness (John 15:26). Christ is the very center of the universe. Therefore, He must be the center of every sermon: “while Christ is at the center of the history of redemption, this divine movement of grace is triune and occurs accordingly”. Because Jesus is the second person of the Trinity whom the Father sent and approves, and whom the Spirit exalts, and about whom Scripture testifies, therefore the preacher should do nothing else but to preach the person and redemptive work of Christ, from all Scriptures. Preachers must be expositors of the Word in order to not equivocate and twist the original meaning of the passage; and moreover, interpretation has to lead to Christ’s person, work, and fulfillment. If preachers are not replicating what God initially intended to communicate (Himself through the original context) they are actually not preaching the Word of God: “preaching does not consist of speculation but of exposition”. Sander, quoting Saphir, reminds the danger of preaching sermons from the Bible in which Christ is absent: “By Bibliolatry I understand the tendency of separating, in the first place, the Book from the Person of Jesus Christ, and in the second, from the Holy Ghost, and of thus substituting the Book for Him who alone is the light and guide of the Church”. Sinclair Ferguson affirmed: “For he is himself the Word, the Logos, the Sermo -the sermon- spoken by the Father; he is the One who, by the Spirit, is himself the Preacher. And, in keeping with the Pauline vision, he is the One who is preached (Col. 1:28)”. The Holy Spirit’s ministry is Christ-centered. And thus the preacher’s ministry must be too. Many times preachers take a passage and pull out some principles and applications directly to people, brutally avoiding Jesus Christ. Those moralizing sermons are not evangelical because they are ‘gospel’ without the Gospel. They are ‘christian’ messages without Christ. They are ‘words’ without the Word. Instead, our sermons must be Christ-saturated. The Bible ultimately speaks of Christ, and only afterwards may be applied to us through Christ to whom the church is united. If our sermons are sufficiently suitable also for a Jewish synagogue or a Muslim mosque without stirring any complaints, there is something seriously wrong with them. The goal of the instrumental Word (preaching), expounding the canonical Word (Scripture), must always be to exalt the personal Word (Jesus).

The HOW of preaching:
Implementing the supernatural and Trinitarian chain of preaching

Preachers must proclaim only what the Spirit speaks, namely truth about and from Christ the Son, whom before ascending to heaven preached only truth coming from the Father. This is the revelatory Trinitarian chain that enhances preaching. True preaching is only performed in the Spirit of Christ. Truth and revelation are passed down from the Father to the Son, and then to the Spirit, and finally to preachers. Backward, preachers must glorify and manifest the Spirit, who glorifies and reveals the Son, who glorifies and reveals the Father.
In eternity, God speaks by eternally generating the Son and together eternally spirate the Spirit. This eternal revelatory and missional nature of God is the basis for our epistemology and life. The eternal nature of the Trinity is manifested in redemptive history. The Trinity always acted together in revelation, creation and salvation. But also there are different emphases on the different divine persons in redemptive seasons: in the Old Testament, the Father is preeminent, in the Gospels, the Son is preeminent, and in the last days, the Spirit is preeminent. The Father speaks, the Son is the Word spoken, and the Spirit causes that message to be known and real, a life-giving and life-changing reality. In ancient days the Father preached, in the fullness of time He sent the Son to preach, and at Pentecost they sent the Spirit to preach. The Spirit today enables preachers to proclaim the very Word of God. Going backward in this divine chain, preachers must preach faithfully the inspired Word of God given by the Spirit, in order to let the Spirit bear witness to Christ, who reveals the Father. Griffiths explains the modality if trinitarian preaching: “this encounter with God through his word is thoroughly Trinitarian. God the Father speaks his word; this word consists, in its fullness, in the Person of his Son, and it is mediated by the power of his Spirit. Thus the word as mediated by the Spirit is the central means by which the relationship between Jesus and the believer is established and maintained after the ascension”.
Preaching in the power of the Spirit is central in God’s redemptive work to reconcile people in union with the Trinity: through the Spirit, the church is able to participate in the loving inter-trinitarian relationship between the Father and the Son, which has existed from all eternity. Salvation is restoration to a trinitarian relationship: participation of the individual Christian with the Godhead and also within the Church, according to the model of the Trinity. For John Owen, communion with the Trinity stems from God’s self-communication: “Our communion… with God consisteth in his communication of ​​himself unto us, with our return unto him of that which he requireth and accepteth, flowing from that union which in Jesus Christ we have with him”.
Griffiths concord with Owen:

“Knowing and abiding in Jesus, and, through him, in the Father, happens as the word of Jesus is received and abides in those who hear. Jesus and the Father are ‘manifested’ through the word. This process continues beyond the earthly ministry of Jesus as his disciples speak his word… As the disciples speak the word of Jesus after the time of the ascension, others will be able to enter into the unity that the people of God share with Jesus and the Father”.

Since we want to preach according to the Spirit of God, we must consider the nature of the Spirit. God is not a God of chaos but of order. The fruit of the Spirit is self-control and discipline. A worship service, according to the Apostle Paul, must not be governed by anarchy but by order and decency. Since the preaching of the Word is the very center of Christian service and the climax of worship, it must be done with order. Thus, also the very homiletic techniques are in a sense a way to reflect the Spirit’s manifestation. The Spirit will more effectively use a well outlined, deeply pondered and rightly balanced sermon, rather than a disordered, disconnected and hastily-shuffled thoughts. Against any common stereotype, the true pentecostal preaching is done with a solidly structured sermon. Wellum agrees:

God’s word is associated with the power of God’s Spirit (1 Thess 1:5) since Scripture closely links God, his Word, and his Spirit (Heb. ruach; Gk. pneuma). This linkage between God, his Word, and his Spirit are important for making sense of the relations between the divine persons in the doctrine of the Trinity, both within God (ad intra) and in his external works (ad extra)…there is close correlation between word and Spirit, ultimately grounded within God himself.

Nicene Trinitarian grammar is not empty philosophical speculation but it is a helpful tool that helps preachers understand the trinitarian framework in which they fulfil their holy vocation:

The unbegotten Father is the one who initiates by speaking through the Son and by the Spirit; the Son, who is from the Father, is the Word spoken; and the Spirit, who is from the Father and Son, and who is the breath that accompanies the Word and brings to completion all of God’s acts. All of this is to say that when we encounter God’s word, we encounter God himself in his triune glory.

Because the Holy Spirit wants to redeem all of man (mind, heart, will and even body!) the preaching of the Word must be complete: intellectually satisfying and emotionally engaging, logically precise and affection-rousing. Isaiah 40:1-2 defines the kind of preaching God wants and blesses: “My people, be ye comforted, be ye comforted, saith your Lord God…Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem” (WYC). Reeves says that preaching by the Spirit is “light and heat” at the same time, light for the mind and heat for the affections. That is why Dr. Llyod Jones defined preaching as ‘logic on fire’. Only this kind of expository preaching, anointed by the Spirit, is able to lead the whole new man to be renewed according to Christ’s image, to love Jesus the Saviour through whom the Father is glorified.
Church history testifies to this truth. Jonathan Edwards was not an eloquent and entertaining character in the pulpit, but on the contrary was tied to the manuscript that he read row by row (against every ‘good practise’ taught in homiletics courses worldwide!). Nevertheless Edwards’ preaching produced such a supernatural effect in his hearers that they all bore testimony that while Mr Edward preached, the presence of God was real. This is true for every great preacher of church history. The “secret” of Christian preaching is not some strategies or technicalities, but the tangible presence of God, manifested through the Word’s proclamation. This encourages preachers to not seek the “silver bullet” in marketing skills which will provide alleged instantaneous growth. The study of homiletics is good and necessary, but without the anointing of the Holy Spirit and the manifestation of God’s glory, all is vain. Keller tells about George Whitfield: “while the difference between a bad sermon and a good sermon is mainly the responsibility of the preacher, the difference between good preaching and great preaching lies mainly in the work of the Holy Spirit…Regardless of how any particular sermon was crafted, the sense of God’s presence and power always seemed to accompany Whitefield’s preaching”.
Preachers can preach confidently, knowing that they are external ministers cooperating with the Almighty internal minister, the Holy Spirit, who takes the preached Word from ears to hearts. Preaching in the Spirit reveals the glory of Christ who reveals the glory of the Father. Only so, the glory of the Trinity is displayed and sinners are saved by grace. Preachers’ neglect of the Holy Spirit’s ministry “is a symptom of the decline of biblical Trinitarianism that marks our age”.

Conclusion

Because the Triune God is an eternal preacher who has chosen to speak to His people, we can know and proclaim Him. Faithful preaching reveals God’s royal, holy, proclaiming, generative, loving, personal, and relational nature. This is the ‘why’ of preaching.
Through Christ-centred sermons, preachers can echo divine preaching, according to the Triune model of the Father and the Spirit. This is the ‘what’ of preaching.
By the power and blessing of God the Holy Spirit through preaching, dead people may be raised to new life, united to Christ the Son, and enjoy the eternal Trinitarian fellowship, for the glory of the Father. This is the ‘how’ of preaching.

Bibliography

Albert R. Mohler. He Is Not Silent: Preaching in a Postmodern World. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2008.
Allen, Lewis. The Preacher’s Catechism. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018.
Allison, Gregg R. Roman Catholic Theology and Practice: An Evangelical Assessment. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014.
Athanasius. On the Incarnation. Edited by John Behr. Yonkers, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2011.
Barrett, Matthew, ed. Reformation Theology: A Systematic Summary. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017.
Barrett, Matthew, and R. Albert Mohler. God’s Word Alone: The Authority of Scripture: What the Reformers Taught and Why It Still Matters. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2016.
Bavinck, Herman. Reformed Dogmatics. Edited by John Bolt and John Vriend. 4 vols. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003.
Beeke, Joel. Reformed Systematic Theology: Volume 1: Revelation and God. 4 vols. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019.
Beeke, Joel R. Reformed Preaching: Proclaiming God’s Word from the Heart of the Preacher to the Heart of His People. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018.
Bowsher, Clive. Life in the Son: Exploring Participation and Union with Christ in John’s Gospel and Letters. London, UK: Apollos, 2023.
Boyce, James P. Abstract of Systematic Theology. Cape Coral, FL: Founders Press, 2025.
Bray, Gerald. The Doctrine of God. Contours of Christian Theology. Leicester, UK: Inter-Varsity Press, 1993.
Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Edited by John Thomas McNeill. 2 vols. London, UK: Westminster John Knox Press, 1960.
Carson, Donald A. The Gospel According to John. Grand Rapids, MI: IVP, 1991.
Chan, Sam. Preaching as the Word of God: Answering an Old Question with Speech-Act Theory. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2016.
Chapell, Bryan. Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2018.
Charles, H. B. Jr. On Preaching: Personal and Pastoral Insights for the Preparation and Practice of Preaching. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2014.
Cheeseman, John. The Priority of Preaching. Edinburgh, Scotland: Banner of Truth Trust, 2006.
Clowney, Edmund P. Preaching Christ in All of Scripture. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2003.
Crowe, Brandon D., and Carl R. Trueman, eds. The Essential Trinity: New Testament Foundations and Practical Relevance. London, UK: Apollos, 2016.
Dabney, Robert Lewis. Sacred Rhetoric, or, A Course of Lectures on Preaching. Edinburgh, Scotland: Banner of Truth Trust, 1979.
De Chirico, Leonardo. Same Words, Different Worlds – Is Roman Catholicism Faithful to the Gospel? Lisle, IL: Apollos IVP, 2021.
Dever, Mark, and Greg Gilbert. Preach: Theology Meets Practice. Nashville, TN: B & H Books, 2012.
Dudley-Smith, Timothy. A Global Ministry ; the Later Years. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001.
———. The Making of a Leader: The Early Years. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999.
Fairbairn, Donald. The Story of Creeds and Confessions: Tracing the Development of the Christian Faith. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2019.
Ferguson, Sinclair B. Some Pastors and Teachers: Reflecting a Biblical Vision of What Every Minister Is Called to Be. Edinburgh, Scotland: Banner of Truth Trust, 2017.
Garretson, James M. Princeton and Preaching: Archibald Alexander and the Christian Ministry. Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 2005.
Griffiths, Jonathan I. Preaching in the New Testament: An Exegetical and Biblical-Theological Study. London, UK: Apollos, 2017.
Helm, David R. Expositional Preaching: How We Speak God’s Word Today. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014.
Keller, Timothy. Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age of Skepticism. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2016.
Kelly, Douglas F. Systematic Theology. Volume 1: The God Who Is the Holy Trinity. 3 vols. Fearn, Ross-shire: Mentor, 2008.
King, David M. Your Old Testament Sermon Needs to Get Saved: A Handbook for Preaching Christ from the Old Testament. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2021.
Klein, William W. Introduction to Biblical Interpretation. 3rd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: HarperCollins Christian Publishing, 2017.
Knowles, Michael P. “Preachers in the Hands of a Gracious God” JETS.65.2 (2022): 225–37.
Letham, Robert. The Holy Trinity: In Scripture, History, Theology, and Worship. Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R, 2004.
Lloyd-Jones, David Martyn. Preaching and Preachers. London, UK: Hodder & Stoughton, 2013.
Macleod, Donald. Shared Life: The Trinity and the Fellowship of God’s People. Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2024.
Mead, Peter. “Preaching and Heart-Level Hermeneutics,” https://www.unionpublishing.org/resource/preaching-and-heart-level-hermeneutics/.
Mohler, R. Albert, and Don Kistler. Feed My Sheep: A Passionate Plea for Preaching. Morgan, PA: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 2002.
Murray, Iain H. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. 2 vols. Edinburgh, Scotland: Banner of Truth, 1990.
Owen, John. Communion with the Triune God. Edited by Kelly M. Kapic and Justin Taylor. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2009.
Perkins, William. The Art of Prophesying. Edinburgh, Scotland: Banner of Truth Trust, 1996.
Piper, John. Expository Exultation: Christian Preaching As Worship. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018.
———. The Supremacy of God in Preaching. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2015.
Reeves, Michael. Preaching: A God-Centred Vision. Bridgend, Wales: Union Publishing, 2024.
Renihan, Samuel D. God without Passions. Macclesfield, UK: Broken Wharfe, 2024.
Robinson, Haddon W. Biblical Preaching: The Development and Delivery of Expository Messages. 3rd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2014.
Runia, Klaas. Karl Barth’s Doctrine of Holy Scripture. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2018.
Sanders, Fred. The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything. 2nd ed. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017.
Santiago, Julius E. Preaching as the Primary Means of Grace. Macclesfield, UK: Broken Wharfe, 2022.
Schaeffer, Francis A. He Is There and He Is Not Silent. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001.
Scrivener, Glen. “A Theology of Preaching” https://www.unionpublishing.org/resource/a-theology-of-preaching/.
Spurgeon, Charles H. Lectures to My Students. Edinburgh, Scotland: Banner of Truth, 2008.
Stott, John R. W. Between Two Worlds: The Challenge of Preaching Today. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2017.
Treier, Daniel J., ed. Trinitarian Theology for the Church: Scripture, Community, Worship. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2009.
Van Dixhoorn, Chad. Theology for Ministry: How Doctrine Affects Pastoral Life and Practice. Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2021.
VanGemeren, Willem A., ed. New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology & Exegesis. 5 vols. Carlisle, Cumbria: Paternoster Press, 1997.
Venema, Cornelis P. “The Doctrine of Preaching in the Reformed Confessions” MTJ.10 (1999): 135–83.
Wellum, Stephen J. Systematic Theology, Volume 1: From Canon to Concept. 3 vols. Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2024.

Tematiche: Teologia sistematica