Don Sunukjian continues a nice little series on “Biblical Preaching for the Contemporary Church” with a little book on preaching Philippians (Weaver, 2014). The book is short (113 pages) and written at a very popular level (this fits within the goals of the series). I found the author’s insights into the various texts of Philippians to be thought-provoking and insightful. If you’ve not read one of the books in this series, it is important you understand their purpose. They are not commentaries, and contain almost no technical language. They are also not fully fleshed out sermons. Rather, each chapter deals with a pericope of text and gives what would probably amount to a fifteen minute message on that text.
By far the strength of this book is the great aid that it will give pastors in the delivery of messages on the text of Philippians. Sunukjian is funny, and his illustrations are great. His applications are also a strength, as he does not approach the text as a professor, but as a pastor with a congregation in mind. The only major weakness I see is that Sunukjian at times will make a major deal out of a point in a text that is either debated or not clear, which means that if you fall on the other side of the debate you lose most of his material on that point. This is a relatively minor weakness. I enjoyed the book and was encouraged and challenged by the content. I would really recommend this book and the series for anyone seeking to get a fresh perspective on preaching through the letter to the church at Philippi.