The Supremacy of God in Preaching

While I may not aspire to be preaching and I view the role of pastor/preacher as being exclusive to men in the church, I was encouraged by this book and challenged myself to keep an open mind as to practical application in my own life. Note: this was required reading for a seminary class on bible exposition. Piper punctuates and asserts the relationship that must exist between God's supremacy and preaching, how the “majesty and truth and holiness and righteousness and wisdom and faithfulness and sovereignty and grace” of God is still absolutely relevant and must be evident in preaching today (17). Reading this book and taking this class have increased my respect for those who are in pastoral roles or aspire to be because of the weightiness, the gravity of a role requiring the handling of God's Word rightly and for the glory of God and not self. I am all the more grateful for those who preach at the church I attend and want to be more intentional to pray for them that they would see the link between God's supremacy and preaching, which God uses for the purposes of salvation for the lost and perseverance of the saints.

While the book may appear to be short, it is not lacking in depth, and I found myself rereading sentences, paragraphs, and even chapters to ensure I was grasping the depth of what Piper wrote and at times was not sure of his meaning (e.g., the chapter on concept creation for some reason took me a few reads). I have not read anything by him before, and perhaps this and not having a personal calling to preaching may have been barriers to the writing clicking as easily as other books I have read in seminary so far. However, I did greatly appreciate the frequent references to scripture not only in the “addresses” of the verses but whole verses themselves as well as references to other theologians, preachers, and believers. It was as if Piper was seeking to assert truths he believes to be universal with regard to preaching because of how he understands scripture and God's character rather than wanting to spout off his own thoughts and feelings in a self-important way.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to better understand the why and what behind biblically-oriented and tethered preaching, especially if pursuing pastoral ministry or any ministry involving preaching.