I’m learning from Jonathan Edwards’s sermons that I should be able to display the coaster above all over my church or home study. I saw another t-shirt sign, however, that reflects most preaching practice: “Will exegete for food.”

I said in a previous post that most of us think more about exegesis than we do theology. It shows in our sermons. A typical sermon in my theological camp is often exegetically heavy and theologically light. This usually involves in-depth word studies and grammatical insights, plus some cross-referencing for added support.

Edwards’s sermons appear to be exegetically lite and theologically heavy (I might argue that the same goes for Timothy Keller’s sermons too). That doesn’t mean there is no exegesis. It means that the sermon is constructed with minimal exegesis and maximum theological insights.

And I’m not really sure if “theological” is the right word for what I’m seeing. Maybe better to describe Edwards’s sermons as theological-philosophical.

So, in his sermon, Christian Happiness, Isaiah 3:10 is the foundational text: “Say unto the righteous, it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.”

Edwards’s opening sentence displays his theological/philosophical method:

“Reasonable beings, while they act as such, naturally choose those things which they are convinced are best for them…” (p. 296, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 10).

Edwards is quick to point out that God deals with us as reasonable beings. And we are persuaded by this desire for our own good.

Before Edwards gets to any of what I would call pure exegesis of Isaiah 3:10, he highlights how God’s motivation is designed to work. Isaiah doesn’t tell us how, but Edwards goes on to tell us how. That’s one of thousands of examples of Edwards’s exegetically lite and theologically heavy preaching.

Before Sunday, see if there are places in your preaching portion that could benefit from this type of analysis for God’s glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal