I like this idea a lot. It's a great way to fill in the gaps that are often left when you have to distill hours of study down to one 20-30 minute message.
How have others responded to it? I'll be curious to see how your flock finds this.
Russell,
Thought provoking sermon and post!
As I said at the time it seemed a little strange that your sermon stressed intuition while the text was centered on the Spirit’s use of scriptural interpretation, using Philip as His instrument. You did a nice job of highlighting Philip’s approach to teaching scripture (waiting for questions from the Ethiopian). But then you emphasized the Spirit’s influencing of Philip (“the Holy nudge”) instead of His and Philip’s reliance on the truth already delivered to us in scripture.
While I agree that the Spirit does sometimes give us a Holy nudge, there are plenty of indications that the Word is of paramount importance in the ministry of the Spirit. The Spirit will never contradict it. He enables us to understand it. It is the most important means of grace, supported by the sacraments. It is our best model for prayer. The faithful preaching of the word by pastors like you is a key sign of the true church. Studying the Word brings us closer to God and to His assurance. In the beginning of the book of John the Word refers to Christ, and the most important purpose of the Spirit is to point to Christ.
By the way, as an example of our church's seriousness, someone once pointed out that "Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer" is technically incorrect since God always answers His people's prayers. While this criticism is literally correct, as humans we sometimes feel our prayers are unanswered, when God doesn't do what we want!
While not focused on the Second Awakening, John McArthur’s book “Ashamed of the Gospel” does discuss the problems created by Finney, and especially Spurgeon’s resistance to similar non-Biblical tendencies during the “Down-Grade” controversy in England. A great book, with a direct relevance to issues the church faces today.
I found your "cutting room floor" comments very interesting and hope you do it again!
John J
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