Richard D. Phillips

I'm a commentary junkie. I love commentaries!

1 Samuel is my first venture into the Reformed Expository Commentary series. I picked up this book as an aid to a bible study I was leading through 1 Samuel with a fantastic group of senior adults. I had some other commentaries that were authored by Richard Phillips, so I knew him to be a sound theologian who handled the text well. His name actually drew me to try out this new series. And boy am I glad I did!

1 Samuel is not a technical commentary, show more though it does not ignore technical issues or syntactical difficulties. Phillips just deals with them in succinct ways and refers readers to more technical offerings if they still have questions. This commentary should be classified as pastoral. It would be an amazing tool for any pastor, bible study leader, or layman who yearns to read deeper. Phillips does a great job of viewing the narrative passages of 1 Samuel through a Christological lens. Without forced allegorization, he sees Christ and the covenantal nature of God in the text. He helps the reader to understand how the drama surrounding David, Samuel, and Saul point to spiritual truths that are more than moral tails.

I strongly recommend this work! show less

Jesus the Evangelist

Jesus the Evangelist, by Richard Phillips, is a collection of sermons Phillips preached at his Presbyterian church through the Gospel of John. These sermons focus on John 1, 3, and 4, and examine the evangelism of Jesus.

Perhaps the biggest danger in studying historical narratives is confusing description with prescription. Just because Jesus walked on water, for example, does not mean Mark is telling us to walk on water. This danger is the trap that plagues many books on show more evangelism. Many evangelistic methods take one example of evangelism from a Gospel or Acts, and build a model upon that singular event as if it was prescriptive.

But Phillips threads this needle exceptionally well, by summarizing the text, asking questions of the text, and then showing how those answers can be applied to us today. For example, from Jesus’ exchange with Nicodemus, Phillips gives us theology: “The reason we can be born again, receiving eternal life, is that God loves the world.” And later: “John 3:16 shows that it is not enough to know what faith is; we must actually have it.” Finally, he shows how these truths illuminate why Jesus said what he said: “Sometimes, when doctrinal explanations have failed to move a sinner’s heart, a biblical portrait of Jesus’ beautiful love will bring him or her to salvation.” He does this all while resisting the temptation to reduce evangelism to a singular method, and instead he shows principles from all three of these evangelistic encounters that are useful today.

Jesus the Evangelist moves beyond the normal illustrations and evident principles to the more practical and profound. He peels back the Samaritan’s woman’s questions to show that people are often seeking the wrong things—things that will not satisfy. In order to get a sinner to realize this, their sin must be confronted, and this is what Jesus did in John 4:16-19. Jesus’ confrontation turned into multiplied evangelism, as the woman returned home, testifying that Jesus is “the Savior of the World” (John 4:42).

Phillips brings an exegete’s keen eye to these texts, and he matches that with a God-centered theological precision. He shows how Jesus proclaimed his sovereignty over salvation in John 3, while also claiming that whoever believes in Him will be saved. He does this in a way that is faithful to the text, and more importantly, in a way that makes the reader want to go outside and witness.

His section on how the Gospel shows the love of God was remarkable for precisely this reason: he let the text speak, instead getting bogged down theological arguments foreign to the passage. I finished that section not with questions about free will and predestination, but with a sense of being overwhelmed at the love which God has shown not just me, but the world.

This book is as precise as it is practical. It would be helpful for pastors preaching through John, and it would be helpful for Christians who want to study the way Jesus practiced evangelism. I’m glad Phillips put this out as a book on evangelism, rather than as a commentary, because if an author were to write a faithful commentary on these three passages, it would end up being a book on evangelism. Each section also ends with discussion questions where are helpful for small groups. show less

There were parts I really enjoyed about this book and parts I didn’t. The first half was insightful, challenging, and inspiring—a wake up call to stir men to action in their field, to lead, to be image-bearers of God; confident of their call and their destiny. I was literally strapping on my armour and readying my lance for battle when I began the last half of the book about parenthood and church.

Here the book took a dive somewhat, in my opinion, into dogmatism & (a little) chauvinism. show more There were, in retrospect, hints of it earlier on in the book, but there were also enough gems to overlook it. In the end though, the author’s military background cast too menacing a shade on his approach to parenting and church and I found myself disagreeing more often than not with his assertions. The second half of the book was overly dominated by personality and under-supported by scripture, in my opinion, which is ironic because he finishes on the topic of “I must decrease and he must increase”. show less

I read this book on my summer holidays, and found it to be very profitable. It consists of 13 readable chapters (sermons) on the Psalms, divided into two sections. The theme of the book is how we develop a real relationship with God. This is something we often talk about, but I wonder how much we actually experience it in our lives.

Part one looks at our relationship with God. He discusses what it means to live under God’s blessing; who we are and who God is (as God sees it); and God as our show more shepherd and help. Phillips is looking at what it means to have a relationship with God and how we enter it.

Part two looks at the fruit of this relationship, and what it means in practice for us. Topics examined are praise, prayer, faith, joy, repentance, thanksgiving and a desire for God. As we develop these areas of our life, our relationship with God will deepen and become more precious.

The book finishes with discussion questions for each chapter.

This book will help anyone who wants to develop a deeper, more genuine relationship with God. If there is that gap between what you are as a Christian, and what you ought to be, or what you wish to be, Phillips will help with sound, heart-warming, biblical teaching.

This is one of the best books I have read recently, and it deserves to be a classic. Highly recommended. show less