Finding the Timeless Truth...Continued from page 1

Phil Wood

Take the worst case scenario, however. Imagine you are working on one of those deadly Saturday night specials. In your haste you overlook the application given to this passage in the New Testament and on Sunday you blindly preach the naked words of Moses in the setting of his second giving of the law. In your sermon, would this truth stay with Moses in the wilderness or would you have the insight to distill the timeless truth and pour it over a present day situation?

The Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, utilizes this passage to explain to Timothy that elders in the local church, especially teaching elders, are worthy of wages, even a double honorarium (1 Tim. 5:18). He also used this same passage to justify not having to be bi-vocational in ministry at Corinth (1 Cor. 9:9).

While one preacher might dismiss the original proverbial command as having no bearing upon today, much like a jeweler who sees no function for a gem and leaves it lying in a back storeroom, another preacher is just as guilty because he leaves the stone locked in a showcase, wanting it to be admired but never used. The true beauty of an exquisite jewel is when it is worn in its contemporary setting. Rather than being too careless, some good, God-fearing, Scripture-loving, Bible preachers and teachers are actually guilty of being too restrictive in their application.

One well-known professor from a top-rated evangelical seminary gave a tongue scourging to a student for “spiritualizing” the geographical locations included in the Matthean “Great Commission” passage. The student was accused of making a horrible hermeneutical and applicational error by comparing “Jerusalem” in the text to one’s local geographical area. Like a turtle he pulled back and lost confidence to make any application in his preaching, even obvious ones.

Somewhere in the process of sermonizing the preacher must turn up the heat on the passage and himself and discover the timeless, universal truth that remains. Warren Wier

sbe, in his classroom teaching on homiletics, offers the metaphors of a picture, a window, and a mirror. We begin with a text that paints a picture from a time long ago. We can admire the picture, but at that distance we do not necessarily have to interact with it. That is, until we recognize that it is a window to the world right outside our door. Through prayer, study, and meditation we then discover the truth we are viewing is still alive and at work right around us. We find ourselves staring into a window, which, through gazing, actually transforms itself into a mirror.