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Randal Pelton, Ph.D., D.Min., Th.M.

Senior Pastor, Professor

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How Edwards Selected Future Sermons: What I’m Learning From Reading Jonathan Edwards’s Early Sermons

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I thought you might like to read about how Jonathan Edwards selected sermons to preach. In part 2 of his General Introduction to Edwards’s preaching is a chapter called, The Making of Sermons. I am enjoying Kimnach’s careful analysis as much as Edwards’s actual sermons.

I am a huge Edwards fan even though he did not preach through books of the Bible. There. I said it.

So, how did he plan sermons to preach?

First, he selected Scripture texts that stood out to him as needing to be preaching due to their subject matter.

Second, he at times matched the text to a time of year or holiday such as Thanksgiving.

Third, he listed potential Scriptures or subjects that would be appropriate for children, young people, or old men. You can see that he’s thinking about preaching to specific categories within his congregation.

Fourth, Edwards also took notes on certain subject matters such as:

“These things persons ought to seek after: That they may live to the glory of God. Their own comfort. That they may be blessings to others.” (p. 58)

One of the most insightful entries in one of Edwards’s sermon notebooks is: “I choose this time to treat on this subject [of people contending with their minister] because now there is no contention between me and my people.” (p. 64, an entry made in March or April of 1749).

That’s good practice when it comes to preaching on money: preach on it when you don’t need to ask for it.

Anyway, you can see that Edwards is constantly planning out sermons to preach, taking notes, even developing initial drafts of key statements and broad outline points.

I am better at planning which books to preach through. However, usually in between book studies I will preach mini-series. In addition to my own growing list of potential sermon series, I benefit from perusing the series of effective pastors such as James Emery White (Church&Culture blog).

Do you have a method for long-term sermon development?

May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as you continue to plan future preaching/teaching series.

Randal

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More On Preaching Holiness: Preaching Through Numbers

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One huge benefit of preaching through Numbers is the emphasis on the holiness of God and His people. My current ministry setting is a very conservative faith-family that is used to such concepts and, yet, they still tell me how much being reminded of holiness is helping them. I have a colleague who preaches in a very different setting and he tells me how challenging it is to preach certain doctrines.

Well, frankly, you can’t preach through Numbers without spending time on the holiness of God. So much of the theology of Numbers 5:1–6:21 hinges on God’s own holiness. It’s the only way to explain the bizarre instructions on dealing with lepers, etc. (5:3 “…putting them outside the camp, that they may not defile their camp”), and with those who are “breaking faith with the Lord” (5:6, plus the strange way to handle jealousy in a marriage in vv. 12-31; watch for puzzled looks if you read that section aloud in church!), and the Nazirite vow (6:2ff.).

It all begins with the holiness of God. Then we can move to being a holy people.

Finally, the instructions–though often strange-to-us–provide direction for our desire to remain a holy people. So, there is actual removal (5:3, similar to the discipline prescribed in 1 Corinthians 5), confession and restitution/repentance (5:7-10).

What a great section of Scripture! What’s more important than the holiness of God and being holy because He is holy?!?

The difficulty, as you know, however, is trying to navigate through all the OT specifics that we do not directly apply to our situation. In a 45 minute sermon, for instance, you really have to stay focused providing only the details that are absolutely necessary to convey the theology about God’s holiness and ours.

If you do that, our Lord will receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21). You’ll be challenged, but, like every other through-the-Book series, it’s entirely worth it.

Randal

P.S. You may recall that the main title of this series is taken from 14:8 “he will bring us into this land.” Each Sunday titles look like this:

“he will bring us into this land”: (subtitle)

This one was:

“he will bring us into this land”: But We Must Separate Ourselves To God

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“the almost feverish search for new books”: What I’m Learned From Reading Jonathan Edwards’s Early Sermons

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I am enjoying Kimnach’s analysis of Jonathan Edwards’s sermon making as much as Edwards’s sermons (The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume 10, Sermons and Discourses 1720-1723).

One of the reasons why Edwards was so effective in his day is because he read more than the average person in his day. We would find that most pastor/theologians we respect and admire are also voracious readers. Think Tim Keller, for instance.

Kimnach writes,

“Much of Edwards’ routine is summed up in this one entry. First is the reference to “books to read,” hinting at the almost feverish search for new books…” (p. 53).

I continue to find that masters and doctoral level students in ministry are not reading well. Due to extremely busy schedules–Edwards wrote often about the challenge of time management!–they are not able to read as much as they know they should. And by and large they are not reading well in the sense of the right material.

If it’s true that one of the top concerns of U.S. pastors is getting more people in the door to pay the bills, you can imagine how that affects what they read and study: church growth.

Edwards’s reading program comprised of three things:

  1. Reading as many books as he could find on theology and his world.
  2. Read the Scriptures a lot! [To this day I would still say the best reading practice is reading through the Scriptures every year in Canonical order.]
  3. Read and rewriting his own writings.

This third one helped Edwards develop as a writer, but also as a preacher. First, as someone said, writing makes you exact. Yet, many preachers do not write out their sermons. Second, the habit of writing forces you to think hard about your topic. That includes more research.

You don’t have to be wired as a scholar like Edwards; you just need to practice writing stuff down, anything that pertains to your pastoral ministry.

And our Lord will receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as you read and write!

Randal

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Deep And Clear Preaching: Developing Flathead Sermons

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I love this picture of Flathead Lake in Montana. It’s deceptively deep because it’s so clear. I want my sermons to be like that.

I’m not happy with this after-sermon comment: “Wow, Pastor! That sermon was deep!” There’s so many things potentially wrong with that as I’m sure you know.

What I treasure is the kind of comment I received recently from someone who visited our church when I was preaching a series of sermons through Romans 1-11. That morning I was preaching the middle of Romans 9 and that “easy” section on God’s prerogative to harden the heart of whomever He wants. A few weeks later he told me:

“I couldn’t believe you would preach that text. It was so clear. Thank you.”

“It was so clear.” Thank you, Lord!

Carrell (Preaching That Matters) has a chapter, Going Deeper, Not Wider. In the chapter she confirms our aversion to “deep” sermons, but urges: “when you are aiming for spiritual transformation and you have a choice between breadth and depth, go for depth” (p. 103).

Our allergic reaction to “deep” stems from confusing deep with confusing. I’m arguing for both deep and clear.

I guess we don’t have to worry about being too deep. Carrell writes,

“Not once in the comments from the more than thirty thousand listeners who have responded to sermons over these past several years has anyone ever said something that even begins to suggest: ‘That sermon content was just too deep for me'” (p. 104). [Of course, that could be a reflection of what a steady dose of topical preaching is doing to us!]

Depth will require that we be the best theologians we can be. Clarity will require us to be the best communicators we can be.

Flathead Lake reaches a depth of around 370 feet. It is also clear as crystal. Lord willing, in a couple of days we’ll be able to preach Flathead sermons.

Before Sunday check your manuscript for depth and clarity so God receives glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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The Potentially Fatal Holiness Of God: Preaching Through Numbers

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I was pretty sure Numbers wasn’t represented on the list of top Bible verse about God’s holiness, but it certainly could be. One of the great things about preaching through the book of Numbers is that it provides opportunities to teach faith-families about God’s potentially fatal holiness.

Take, for instance, Numbers 3:1–4:49. God certainly will bring us into this land (from 14:8), but it involves navigating His fatal holiness. Before God’s people begin their trek, they must learn how important it is to have God in the center of their camp and how to keep from getting killed by holiness-at-close-range.

So, you can teach the seriousness of God’s presence (in vv. 3:7-10, 38; 4:15, 17-20). The Levites are assigned the task of guarding Aaron and the whole congregation. Priests and people must approach God on His terms. The threat of death is sprinkled throughout the section (cf. 4:15, 19-20). The “holy things” cannot be mishandled “lest [those who do] die” (4:15).

I probably don’t have to say that we don’t know much about the holiness of God to this degree!

You can also teach about the price to enter God’s presence (vv. 3:11-13, 40-51). In this section the Lord declares to Moses that He has taken the Levites “instead of the firstborn…among the people of Israel….for all the firstborn are mine….They shall be mine: I am the Lord” (3:12-13).

[Anyone interested in showing how the Christ-event makes Numbers function for the Church will want to show God providing His own Son to pay the steep price.]

Finally, you’ll want to consider some segment that provides an opportunity for congregants to respond to being able to enter God’s presence.

I practice faith-first application so before I get to the “be holy, for I am holy,” part, I will talk about Christ as outlined in brackets above. Then, once I’ve established that Christ makes His holiness available to all who believe, it’s time to make sure everyone in the house consecrates themselves by faith, in the power of Christ’s Spirit (cf. Lev. 11:44-45). God’s holiness demands and creates our holiness in those who believe.

I am finding that, in a day and age when many professing Christians profess faith, some haven’t connected their faith with actual holiness. The book of Numbers provides excellent theology to combat this spiritual disease.

I hope you’ll have an opportunity to preach Numbers so God receives glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

 

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How To Thicken Your Sermon With Theology

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One of the many definitions of the word, thin, is lacking an important ingredient (Reader’s Digest Oxford Complete Wordfinder). Usually, more than a few times a year I listen to sermons in class that fall into the class of being thin. What always strikes me about those sermons is, rarely is the problem not enough exegesis. Usually, it’s a problem of not enough theological thinking. On August 13, 2013 I published a post, Add Theological Thinking To Your Exposition, and said I’d add some examples from the Gospel of Luke. Here’s one and it shows, again, how important it is to move beyond exegesis.
 
In Luke 8:19-21 Jesus makes obedience the sign of being in the faith-family: “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” This is another example of having to come to grips with Jesus’ gospel. Jesus sure sounds like we’re saved by our obedience. It requires thinking through the difficult relationship between faith and works. Jesus doesn’t tell us why obedience to the Word of God is necessary for family-of-God-status. I believe we should make that theological move in our sermons. At some point we must say to our parishioners, “Jesus’ family members are those who obey God’s Word because relationship precedes responsibility, but relationship does not preclude responsibility” (cf. p. 190 in Kuruvilla’s excellent book, Privilege The Text!). When you complete that thought (“…because…”), theology has thickened the sermon. Your communication is commensurate with Scripture’s portrayal of the nature of salvation. Of course, since Luke 8:19-21 doesn’t contain the answer to your question, you’ll have to look elsewhere in the Canon to find one.
 
Take a look at your preaching portion for this coming weekend and see if there are gaps that exegesis alone cannot fill.

This post was originally published on October 7, 2013.

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Your Search for the Interrelationship Between Ideas in your Preaching Portion

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It’s not too late for you to check your sermon notes and see how you have done connecting the dots in your preaching portion. I am learning that this might be the most significant exegetical skill for an expositor. It’s the ability to trace the argument of your text. Or, you might see it as showing how each major thought block in your text interrelates. This means we are looking for meaning beyond the sentence level.

I have been up to my neck in this aspect of discourse analysis for several weeks and months. Most recently, I had the privilege of teaching a Doctor of Ministry cohort (From the Study to Pulpit) at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Here’s a look at that fine group:

A couple of weeks before that it was my privilege to talk about connecting the dots in apocalyptic literature with another D.Min. cohort at GCTS (Preaching the Literary Forms of the Bible):

And then, months ago, I was blessed to spend time talking about the importance of tracing the author’s argument with a group of Master’s level students at Lancaster Bible College/Capital Seminary & Graduate School (Advanced Homiletics).

In every case, we were amazed to see how meaning is formed in the Bible through the interrelationship between ideas in a selected preaching portion. Nothing makes us better expositors than starting by tracing the argument of a text. That is possible with the following steps:

  1. identify the major thought blocks in your text
  2. summarize each identified block in one sentence
  3. write out the logical transition that causes the writer to move out of block one into block two, etc.

In Luke 15 this might look like:

#1 Religious leaders grumbled because Jesus was eating with sinners (vv. 1-2)

Transition: So Jesus told them a parable to correct their grumbling about Him eating with sinners

#2 Jesus told the parable of the lost sheep to correct their grumbling (vv. 3-7)

#3 [you can finish it…]

And, because you understood the interrelationship between the opening narrative and the three-fold parable, you know you would end your sermon focused, not on the prodigal, but on the older brother! And that would drive your primary application away from calling prodigals home.

May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3;21) as we identify and communicate the interrelationship between ideas that exist in our preaching portions each Sunday.

Randal

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Creating Saint-Sanctifying, Seeker-Sensitive Sermons: Working Towards A Balanced Approach

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A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of conducting a preaching workshop at Lancaster Bible College. Our afternoon focused on creating saint-sanctifying, seeker-sensitive sermons: working towards a balanced approach. This post begins a short series on this important topic. Lord willing, I’ll be conducting this seminar in detail at LBC’s campus in Greenbelt, MD on the afternoon of April 3, 2014.

The topic is important because:

  • Seeker-sensitive approaches continue to be very influential and many of us feel some measure of pressure to adopt effective methods.
  • We are creatures of extremes which means some of us might be out of balance (too seeker focused or too saint focused). Or, to put it another way, maybe you have totally dismissed the seeker-senstive approach or you have bought into it whole-hog.

First, let me ask you to analyze your own approach and setting. Do your sermons and approach lean more towards being seeker-senstive or saint-sensitive? What percentage of your listeners on an average Sunday morning would declare to you that they are non-Christian (an important question as we search for balance)?

Alright, let’s look at areas of theology and ministry that are affected by this discussion.

Theology: What did Jesus mean when He said, “Anyone who has ears to hear, let him hear”? Does a certain kind of sermon create ears that can hear?

Hermeneutics: Is the standard approach to reaching seekers the best way to read the Bible? Is, for instance, the “five ways to manage your anger”-type sermon the best interpretation of Scripture selected to support such a sermon (yes, my selection of the word, “support,” is loaded).

Homiletics: Have we paid so much attention to the interest of our listeners that we have forgotten the listener’s spiritual condition and need for theology (as opposed to self-help [defined as moralistic improvement from Scripture apart from faith in Christ)?

That being said, it is not my intention in this series to debunk seeker-senstive, topical preaching. I do want to help bring some clarity to what it means to be seeker-senstive. I especially want to show from 1 Cor. 14:23-25 that we should be and can be more seeker-sensitive with an insider-directed message from God’s Word.

1 Cor. 14:24-25 gives us hope: “But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.”

So, the only way to be seeker-sensitive is not creating an outsider-directed message and delivering it on Sunday morning. We know from v. 22 that these words were “for believers.” Be assured that your sermons aimed at the saints have the potential to reach the outsiders who join us each Sunday morning. More on how that happens in future posts.

Preach well for the sake of Christ’s reputation in the Church/world.

This post was originally published on March 24, 2014.

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A Christ-centered Angle on Jesus’ Exorcism in Luke 11:14-23

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For many reasons, it is difficult to preach exorcism narratives. If you’re in a conservative Baptist, Presbyterian, or Bible Church-type church, Jesus’ exorcisms might make us a bit uneasy. I won’t try to explain a theology of demons and demonization. But I will offer a Christological reading.

You know the story of Jesus casting out the demon and then His power being attributed to Beelzebul. The fact that Jesus was able to cast out demons points to the power of the kingdom of God. In that power encounter, Jesus was the “strong man.” Verse 22 reads, “but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor…and divides his spoil.” On the cross, however, the tables were turned. Luke 23:34 tells us “…And they cast lots to divide his garments.” Jesus is overpowered. Through that loss, of course, we, by faith, experience eternal gain, including victory over Satan and his minions. We enjoy spiritual protection through answered prayer: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

And then comes the unexpected discipleship challenge in v. 23, “…whoever does not gather with me scatters.” That’s really what Luke is after by recording the exorcism. We can’t get lost in all the details of demonology and forget the call to “gather with” Jesus. Jesus delivers us from darkness so we would join Him in gathering others into His Light. It’s scary to stop and think how many of our congregants confess to believe in Christ, yet are inactive disciple-makers.

This post was originally published on February 10, 2014.

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Expecting God To Do Great Things

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I’ve just completed Lloyd-Jones’ excellent book, Preaching & Preachers (40 anniversary edition).  His final chapter is all about the need for preachers to be endowed with special power from the Spirit.  What great exhortation!  L-J asks, “Do you always look for and seek this unction, this anointing before preaching? Has this been your greatest concern? There is no more thorough and revealing test to apply to a preacher” (p. 322).  I was a bit embarrassed to think that often my greatest concern is not whether I have the Spirit’s unction, but whether I have “got it right,” “it” being the sermon and the truth of Scripture.  L-J challenged me again to keep highlight both, not one or the other.  I don’t want to preach the truth by myself (without the Spirit’s power).  I don’t want to preach something that’s biblical, but not biblical enough, with the Spirit’s power (if that is even possible?!).  God help us be both Spirit-empowered and accurate in our preaching.  Then, we can expect God to do miracles in all our lives.  L-J encourages us preachers: “But go beyond seeking Him; expect Him. Do you expect anything to happen when you get up to preach in a pulpit….Are you expecting it to be the turning point in someone’s life?” (p. 340).

This post was originally published on April 4, 2012.