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r/Reformed•
bless47

Are there any Reformed sermons that use Apocryphal books?

I recently bought a copy of the Apocrypha and am currently reading through 1 Macabees. While I am in the camp that these books aren't inspired, so far I'm still fascinated with the story in this book. To me it feels like God was present in the events that the book discusses, just not in the writings (hopefully that makes sense). IIRC the view the Reformers had on the apocrypha is that they're useful but not scripture. So is there any kind of analysis/sermon/book I can find on a book like 1 Macabees from a Reformed perspective? Modern or older is fine.

Posted Nov 23, 2019, 5:33 AM UTC

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DrKC9N:sojourn: Whelp.•

You may find lectures, but I would be surprised (except maybe in liberal/mainline denominations) to find sermons. This is because of the Reformed view of preaching. For example, the Second Helvetic:

THE PREACHING OF THE WORD OF GOD IS THE WORD OF GOD. Wherefore when this Word of God is now preached in the church by preachers lawfully called, we believe that the very Word of God is proclaimed, and received by the faithful; and that neither any other Word of God is to be invented nor is to be expected from heaven ...

With a belief in the primacy of preaching as the vehicle of God's Word for his people, it's very unlikely you'll find anyone preach from text other than Scripture.

Books or lectures, that you might find, and I'd be interested as well.

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2pacalypse7:pca: PCA•

Came here to say this. You can't have a sermon from something that isn't the word of God, but messages and lectures, yes.

While I'm not sure of a lot of writings directly on/from Apocryphal writings, I know there is a lot of OT/NT/church history that assumes Maccabees as a trustworthy history, especially in an age where we don't see inspired books detailing the history. I know some seminary professors that consider 1/2 Maccabees to be important in understanding many NT concepts. I remember one even arguing that in one part of Romans (I think it was Romans at least) Paul was arguing with a point from an Apocryphal book.

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bless47OPSoon to be PCA:pca2:•

I guess I was just misusing the word "sermon".

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Grantzu44•

You'll probably have the best of luck in the Anglican tradition. Article VI states that these books are good for Christian instruction on life and practice but not for the establishment of Christian doctrine.

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bless47OPSoon to be PCA:pca2:•

I agree that it shouldn't establish doctrine. I'm basically going off the fact that I've seen some good sermons about Spurgeon and the Puritans, so sometimes people use things other than scripture to discuss faith. So I was curious if there's ever been a point where something similar was done with an apocryphal book.

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