Reformed Preaching by Joel Beeke

Many thanks to Andy Constable, Assistant Pastor at Niddire Community Church for this book review on Reformed Preaching by Joel Beeke.  Please buy from 10ofThose to avoid multi million tax avoiding book companies!

Reformed Preaching by Joel Beeke is a master piece. Its rich, biblical, Christ entered and soul refreshing. The subtitle to this book is ‘proclaiming Gods word from the heart of the preacher to the heart of his people.’ It his split into three parts. Part one gives a description of what Beeke calls reformed experiential preaching. This, Beeke explains, is preaching that has captured the soul of the preacher experientially and is then applied to the hearts of believers. Beeke summarises: “Reformed Experiential preaching receives God’s word into his heart and then preaches it to the minds, hearts, and lives of the people.” pg 41

Rev Joel Beeke

In part two Beeke takes us through some of the great reformed preachers throughout the centuries and shows how part one is illustrated through these preachers sermons. Beeke takes you from the Reformation to Lloyd Jones and gives a quick biography of their lives and shows you how they preached. There is quote after quote in these chapters that are gospel centered sound bites from these great men’s sermons. 

In part three Beeke looks at preaching today and some of the practicalities of reformed preaching like preaching with balance and preaching the gospel to the heart. Here Beeke takes part one and two and shows us how it is worked out in our preaching today. 

When I picked up the book to start reading I thought this was going to be a struggle to read. I thought it was going to be high brow theological stuff with no practical application. But what I loved about the book was how much it focused on the preacher’s heart. Beeke again and again talks about how we can’t preach effectively unless we have been moved by the text itself. On page 30 he quotes Robert Burns to make his point: “Christianity should not only be known, and understood, and believed, but also felt, and enjoyed, and practically applied.” This is not pie in the sky stuff. This book encourages the preacher to ground the bible in the lives of the preacher and the people. As Beeke writes: “The preacher of the word must ask: ‘Does my preaching help people to walk closely with God in real life? Or does it simply set up a beautiful world of ideas disconnected from their experiences?’ Page 50. Much preaching today in reformed circles can be up in the sky theologically without grounding it in people’s lives. This book sets the record straight. 

At the same time I also appreciated how Beeke encourages the preacher to be rich theologically. This was refreshing to hear because much preaching today is superficial garbage. At the heart of preaching we must unashamedly be men of the word. This includes knowing the word intimately and preaching the centre of the word the Lord Jesus Christ. In chapter 3 he reminds preachers that they need to preach Christ in all his glory: “What does the HS like best in a preacher? The Spirit most delights in the preaching of Christ.” page 63. Again and again this book seeks to exalt Christ and encouraged us to make much of him in our preaching. He also reminds us to preach the sovereignty of God and present a big God over all.

This book was also refreshing for the soul. I appreciated the fact that he encouraged the preacher constantly to watch their own hearts. He reminds us that as preachers that our holiness is God’s greatest weapon. This is so important because preachers can often be the ones at the front who think they have all the information and they need to tell everyone how to live according to the bible. But Beeke reminded me again that I need to stick near to Jesus and watch my heart. That the goal of preaching is not to make much of me but much of Christ. As John says: “I must decrease and he must increase.” Lastly he reminded me of the necessity of prayer in preparation and the fact that we need to preach with great passion! 

I think this is probably my favourite book on preaching I’ve read. The only criticism I would offer is that the section (part 2) on the different preachers was a bit long and repetitive. I think it would have served better to just look at a few. I also hope in the future they might print this book in three volumes to make it more accessible to people who read less. There wasn’t much practical advice on how to prepare a sermon but this is for other books like Saving Euytchus or Simple Preaching by Stuart Olyott. This book instead will equip you to be a better preacher because you will take God’s word seriously, apply it to your hearts, walk in step with the Spirit and preach Christ with all that you’ve got. I can’t recommend this book highly enough. Get a copy and give it a read. Let me end with 2 more quotes that are gold dust:

“The true reformed experiential preacher is a humble preacher, precisely because he is a true lover of Christ in pursuit of holiness, content to be nothing, if in that way Christ may be all in all.” J.Beeke, Reformed Preaching.

“The church today desperately needs preachers who continually remind themselves that awakening, heart engaging, life transforming preaching does not depend on eloquence or self generated passion BUT on the sovereign good pleasure of God operating thru the ministry of the HS.” J. Beeke, Reformed Preaching.