Something I experience regularly is the feeling that I am only barely scratching the surface when it comes to studying the Bible in preparing to preach it.
The other day, I wrote about how I have been preparing to preach through 1 Peter with the preaching team at Ardgowan. At my last count, I’ve made it through the book around a dozen times. I’ve been able to make some observations from those readings but they still feel like the obvious things. The things that get turned into headings by the publishers of Bible translations.
When I then go to consult the work of another pastor 1, I am astounded at how well everything seems to come together. He had basically written a 67-page book on it. And then I get discouraged because it feels like I should be able to see those things there on my own.
But then I had a short chat with him over lunch at a preaching residential and he mentioned that there were still things that he was finding. He’d continued to study even beyond all the work he had put into it before to preach it to his congregation and he was still learning.
I found that incredibly encouraging. While I am only two years into my pastorate, he has been at it quite a bit longer and is still learning from the things he preached before.
The other reason to be encouraged is the simple observation that the Bible will never be boring. There will always be something new to learn. What was obscured by ignorance or lack of experience before can become clear as rough edges are smoothed over by age and sanctification.
And that’s a very good thing indeed.
- During my apprenticeship we spent a day at Cornhill in 1 Peter with a pastor who had preached the whole thing. ↩