Some Pastors and Teachers (Ferguson)

Description

Some Pastors and Teachers is a volume for every minister’s study and indeed for the bookshelves and bedside tables of everyone who has a concern for the ministry of the gospel and the well-being of the church in the twenty-first century. In many ways, it reflects the biblical vision of what every minister is called to be: pastor, teacher, counsellor, and example—but also a man who is growing spiritually, both in understanding and in character, before the eyes of his congregation.

In five sections and thirty-nine chapters, Sinclair B. Ferguson writes on pastor-teachers whose life and work have left an indelible mark on his own life, and then leads us in a series of chapters on the teaching of John Calvin, John Owen and the seventeenth century Puritans. This is followed by studies of Scripture, the ministry of the Spirit, the nature of Biblical Theology, the work of Christ, adoption, the nature of the Christian life and other important doctrines. The final section discusses various aspects of preaching, including preaching Christ from the Old Testament, the importance of theology, reaching the heart, and concludes with a decalogue for preachers. All this, as the epilogue makes clear, is set within the context and goal of doxology.

Here is a book to return to again and again, for instruction, for challenge, and also for enjoyment. While written particularly with ministers in view its style makes it accessible to all. Dr. Ferguson describes Some Pastors and Teachers as a series of small gifts for fellow-ministers and others, written as an expression of the love of Christ. It is calculated to help both ministers of the gospel and entire congregations to realize Paul’s vision of churches growing up into Christ as they are nourished and taught by their pastors and teachers.

Contents

INTRODUCTION

I PASTORS AND TEACHERS: THREE JOHNS

1.John Calvin: Pastor-Teacher
2. John Owen: Pastor and Teacher
3. John Murray: Teacher of Pastors

II JOHN CALVIN: PASTOR-TEACHER

4. A Heart for God
5. Manifested in the Flesh: John Calvin on the Reality of the Incarnation
6.John Calvin: Commentator for Preachers
7. Christology and Pneumatology: John Calvin, the Theologian of the Holy Spirit
8. Calvin and Christian Experience: the Holy Spirit in the Life of a Christian
9. Calvin on the Lord’s Supper and Communion with Christ

III PURITANS: PASTORS AND TEACHERS

10. Puritans: Ministers of the Word
11. John Owen and the Doctrine of the Person of Christ
12. John Owen on the Glory of Christ
13. John Owen on the Priesthood of Christ
14. John Owen and the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit
15. John Owen on Christian Piety
16. Some Thoughts on Reading the Works of John Owen
17. John Flavel and the Mystery of Providence
18. Preaching the Law of God: Reformers and Puritans

IV THE PASTOR AND TEACHING

19. How Does the Bible Look at Itself?
20. Scripture and Tradition
21. The Holy Spirit and the Holy Scriptures: Inerrancy and Pneumatology
22. What Is Biblical Theology?
23. ‘Hallowed Be Thy Name’: the Holiness of the Father
24. Christus Victor et Propitiator: the Death of Christ, Substitute and Conqueror
25. Sola Fide
26. Assurance Justified
27. Christian Spirituality: the Reformed View of Sanctification
28. The Reformed Doctrine of Sonship
29. Some Reflections on the ‘First Title’ of the Holy Spirit
30. Repentance, Recovery, and Confession

V THE PASTOR AND PREACHING

31. The Bit, the Bridle, and the Blessing: An Exposition of James 3:1-12
32. Exegetical Preaching
33. Preaching Christ from the Old Testament Scriptures
34. The Preacher as Theologian
35. Preaching the Atonement
36. Preaching to the Heart
37. Preaching and the Reformed Theological Tradition
39. A Preacher’s Decalogue

EPILOGUE:
Doxology
SCRIPTURE INDEX
GENERAL INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

About the Author

Sinclair B. Ferguson retired in 2013 as Senior Minister of First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, South Carolina, and returned to his native Scotland. Prior to this he held the Charles Krahe chair for Systematic Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary and served Church of Scotland congregations in Unst (Shetland) and Glasgow (St. George’s Tron). He received his Ph.D. from the University of Aberdeen (1971).