Have you ever tried balancing on a bongo board? Okay, I probably should ask it this way: Have you ever tried balancing on a bongo board at my age?!? Unless you’re extremely blessed, it’s usually a struggle to stay on for long; even tougher to stay on while you attempt to move around on it. I find it difficult to balance preaching to insiders and outsiders with the same insider-directed message. As you may have read when this little series began, 1 Corinthians 14:24-25 shows us it can be done, but it’s not easy to do.

So, my goal in this series is to list and briefly explain how three effective pastors reached and, in one case, still reach both insiders and outsiders with the same insider-directed message. The three are Jonathan Edwards, D. M. Lloyd-Jones, and Tim Keller. They are not your typical seeker-sensitive preachers and yet they were, and are, effective in reaching non-Christians while they preach theologically loaded sermons to the Christians. How? So far we’ve looked at the following aspects of their method. They:

1. Categorize listeners according to their spiritual condition
2. Search the heart with probing questions
3. Motivate listeners through both love for God and fear of God
4. Attack the sin behind the sins
5. Speak the thoughts of sinners (both the justified and unjustified)
6. Identify our idols
7. Show how the Gospel works to recreate the human heart
8. Contrast what the world says with what God says.

Now, #9: They plunge beneath the surface of theological terms.

This may sound counter-intuitive. We might think it’s best to reach non-Christians by avoiding heavy theological language. But all three pastors excelled in preaching sermons that included (and include) lengthy explanation, illustration, and application of theological terms. Listen to how Keller tackled repentance (sorry, I do not have the actual sermon; Logos footnoted this only from, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013):

“If you hold grudges, if you’re full of pride….In other words, when you do things wrong, it sets up strains in the fabric of reality and eventually, they lead to breakdown. When the breakdowns come, when the circumstances hit you, when there’s some kind of meltdown, then you suddenly say, ‘Whew! What have I been doing? What has been wrong? How could I have thought that? What’s the matter with me?'”

Keller helps us know what repentance means by showing us how it happens in someone’s mind. It’s like what the young prodigal son might have thought as he was coming to his senses in Luke 15. Check out some of the overlap with #5 above. If your preaching portion contains theological language, fight the temptation to lighten them and delve deep into its meaning.

Preach well for sake of His reputation in the Church and in the world.

Randal

P.S. One of the most helpful little books I’ve read on this topic is Willimon’s, Peculiar Speech: Preaching to the Baptized. It will remind you of who we’re preaching to and help shape your perspective on crafting sermons.