Hugh D. Brown Lectures Report 2025
Hugh D. Brown Lectures Report 2025
By Jason Post
Dr Michael Reeves of Union School of Theology delivered the Hugh D. Brown Lectures via Zoom on the 16th January 2025, exploring the essence of preaching and its product. He began by emphasising that Christians preach because God is inherently a preacher. As it is the nature of light to always shine out, so it is the nature of God to reveal Himself by speaking forth His Word as the Spirit listens. As Reeves noted, God does not just happen to speak, He must share His Word.
Thus, preaching involves joining God in His speaking forth. This should encourage weary preachers. Their goal is not just to impart information about God but to hold out God Himself in His Word, Christ. Reeves distinguished preaching from teaching, which seeks to lay out information. Preaching tells people what God is like and offers them the gift of light and life. In preaching, the preacher brings Christ to those present.
The weight of preaching should both humble and strengthen the one who preaches. The preacher is God’s instrument. It is not a matter for the people to see the preacher, but to see Jesus. In preaching, Jesus meets His Bride as people are saved. The goal of preaching, then, is not to produce mere students of Scripture, but worshippers of Jesus.
In the second lecture, Reeves highlighted the Spirit’s role in the transformative power of true preaching. When God shines forth His glory, it is life-giving and warm, fostering worship. The light of God’s glory is inseparable from the heat of worship, and the gospel presented in preaching turns its hearers into worshippers. As the cross of Christ is proclaimed, the Spirit transforms hearts, using preaching to both convert and build up faith, to both regenerate and sanctify souls.
Reeves concluded with some practical advice. Preachers must embody Christlikeness, characterised by a love for and delight in God and a love for sinners. This demands a focus on both the preparation of their souls as well as their sermons. He stressed that prayerless preaching is loveless preaching, as without experiencing the beauty of Christ, a preacher cannot effectively convey that beauty to others. As Reeves wisely stated, “You won’t preach the gospel better than you have experienced it yourself.”
Reeves’ lecture was a great encouragement for those present. It reminded its hearers of the gravity of preaching, the importance of being Christlike, and the transformative power of the gospel mediated through preaching. So we pray as both those who preach and those who listen: may the Spirit fill the hearts of preachers with a vivid and joy-producing vision of Christ’s beauty. May this vision overflow in their preaching, touching the lives of their hearers and inspiring them, through the Spirit, to treasure Christ above all else.
