Some Pastors and Teachers: Reflecting a biblical vision of what every minister is called to be.

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.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION                xi

I PASTORS AND TEACHERS: THREE JOHNS            

1              John Calvin: Pastor-Teacher        3
2              John Owen: Pastor and Teacher                21
3              John Murray: Teacher of Pastors              39
II JOHN CALVIN: PASTOR-TEACHER         
4              A Heart for God                65
5              Manifested in the Flesh: John Calvin on the Reality of the Incarnation     77
6              John Calvin: Commentator for Preachers              93
7              Christology and Pneumatology: John Calvin, the Theologian of the Holy Spirit      107
8              Calvin and Christian Experience: the Holy Spirit in the Life of a Christian  135
9              Calvin on the Lord’s Supper and Communion with Christ               153
III PURITANS: PASTORS AND TEACHERS
10           Puritans: Ministers of the Word                167
11           John Owen and the Doctrine of the Person of Christ       193
12           John Owen on the Glory of Christ             217
13           John Owen on the Priesthood of Christ 229
14           John Owen and the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit   241
15           John Owen on Christian Piety     263
16           Some Thoughts on Reading the Works of John Owen     299
17           John Flavel and the Mystery of Providence          309
18           Preaching the Law of God: Reformers and Puritans          325
IV THE PASTOR AND TEACHING
19           How Does the Bible Look at Itself?           349
20           Scripture and Tradition  373
21           The Holy Spirit and the Holy Scriptures: Inerrancy and Pneumatology      393
22           What Is Biblical Theology?            417
23           ‘Hallowed Be Thy Name’: the Holiness of the Father       449
24           Christus Victor et Propitiator: the Death of Christ, Substitute and Conqueror       465
25           Sola Fide              487
26           Assurance Justified         505
27           Christian Spirituality: the Reformed View of Sanctification            521
28           Reformed Theology—Reformed Lifestyle            553
29           The Reformed Doctrine of Sonship          579
30           Some Reflections on the ‘First Title’ of the Holy Spirit      591
31           Repentance, Recovery, and Confession                603
V THE PASTOR AND PREACHING              
32           The Bit, the Bridle, and the Blessing: An Exposition of James 3:1-12          627
33           Exegetical Preaching       651
34           Preaching Christ from the Old Testament Scriptures        669
35           The Preacher as Theologian        685
36           Preaching the Atonement           697
37           Preaching to the Heart  717
38           Preaching and the Reformed Theological Tradition           733
39           A Preacher’s Decalogue                753
EPILOGUE:         
Doxology             767
SCRIPTURE INDEX            777
GENERAL INDEX               791
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 799