Category Archives: flow

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Does Your Exegetical Method Help You Do These Two Things?

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Make Sure Your Exegesis Allows You To Do Two Things

As I was preparing to preach this past Sunday, I reminded myself again that my job was fairly straightforward. Not necessarily easy, but uncomplicated. If I remember correctly, I even mentioned these two things to our faith-family at the start of the message.

Two things seemed most important if the sermon was going to be a vital part of the worship service. If I could accomplish those two things, then I would have been faithful to my calling as a soul-watcher.

[I realize there’s much more to preaching than these two things, but not less!]

First, it is important for our exegetical method to trace the flow of thought or argument of a preaching portion, regardless of genre (type of literature). Since God decided to write down His revelation to us, He determined to convey theology through literary structure. Tamper with the structure and we may run the risk of tampering with the theology. That’s how His communication works. So, you might consider analyzing the flow of thought or logical structure of a text to be exegesis’s first task. It is always the first thing I do every Monday morning.

Some of my students will recall this being the “A” in ABIT.

Second, it is important for our exegetical method to discover the worship response God is aiming at in His Word. Tracing the flow of thought will reveal how the ideas fit together to form meaning. You and I will have to infer, however, how God intends that meaning to move His listeners to some worship response. You might be more familiar with thinking about the application and that’s fine. I prefer to think of how God intends for the Believer to respond to His revelation as an act of worship. Our exegetical method should allow us to arrive in the pulpit each Sunday ready to announce what God intends for His Word to do to the church.

Again, students may remember this as the “I” in ABIT.

Is this really that important? Sermons on Luke 15 that primarily call all prodigals to come home have missed the flow of thought arising out of vv. 1-2. Missing the argument automatically skews the intention. Tracing the argument leads to a sermon that primarily calls all Pharisee-like listeners to come home.

May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as you use your exegetical method each weekend.

Randal

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Exposition that Doesn’t Follow the Structure of Scripture, but for Good Reason

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Let’s Not Make Communicating God’s Word
Any Harder by our Sermon Structure.

This past Saturday I had the privilege of co-leading a four-hour workshop on the campus of Lancaster Bible College | Capital Seminary & Graduate School, Unpacking Sacred Scripture. Our task was to help unpack Psalm 1 and 2, the formal introduction to the Psalter.

I suggested we follow the structure of Psalm 1 and 2. The flow of thought is easy to follow. Here’s what I mean in Psalm 1:

1:1-3 describe the blessed person.

1:4-5 describe the wicked person.

1:6 explains why this is reality.

This past Sunday I had the privilege of preaching Psalm 86. I chose not to follow the structure of the Psalm. Psalm 86 is filled with at least 15 requests to God, with virtually each request followed by reasons why we pray like that.

For instance, 86:1a is “Incline your ear…and answer me…” and 86:1b explains, “for I am poor and needy.”

This same flow of thought continues throughout much of the Psalm.

So, as I often do, I decided to make the first major movement of the sermon devoted to the requests. The second movement dealt with all the reasons why, such as 86:1b above.

In this way, I kept the communication from bouncing back and forth between request and reason. I could spend several minutes of the message focused on the requests and their contribution to theology and the faith-journey. Then, in the second major point, I grouped the reasons why together.

My goal in straying from the structure was to make communication lines a little clearer. It is risky. I made a judgment call that breaking the structure didn’t break the theology of the passage. I preserved the theology by making sure we all knew that the Psalm presented requests with their reasons (keeping the structure intact in our minds).

Before Sunday see if there may be a need to group similar ideas together in a point, even if the text scatters them throughout the preaching portion.

May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as we work hard at clear communication.

Randal

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How Outlining A Sermon Helps Me, Not Just My Listeners

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How does outlining help you? And your listeners?

Through the years I have tried many different outline methods.

The method I taught in my early years of teaching preaching was that each major point should be worded as an application. It had some merit since it forced preachers to see listener response in each major point and not just at a segment at the end of the sermon. It helped listeners to respond each step of the way.

Then, I spent several years preaching without any outline. Instead of announcing major points, I simply used logical transitions to move from one segment to the next.

For the past several years my outlining follows the method of Timothy Keller, former pastor at Redeemer NYC. You may not know this but Keller’s method of outlining follows the method of another famous preacher named, Jonathan Edwards. I found that out after listening to hundreds of Keller’s sermons and, later, reading Edwards’ sermons.

My best attempt to explain the method is to say that the outline reflects an attempt to show the logical divisions of a particular idea.

Which brings me to my point in this post.

Now I teach and practice a form of outlining that stems from tracing the argument of a passage. My students know this as the “A” in ABIT.

The outline emerges from the practice of dividing a preaching portion into thought blocks, summarizing each block in a sentence, and identifying the logical transition that exists from block to block.

In this way the practice of tracing the argument contributes to the formation of a preaching outline. And for me, this exercise begins on Monday morning. While I might not create the final wording of the outline until later in the week after my exegesis is complete, I understand how the meaning is made in the pericope.

You probably do something like this to create your outline.

Our outlines may help our listeners keep the sermon from fragmenting into too many ideas. The major points all fit together.

The outline helps me make sure I understand how the author is communicating theology. It is a teaching tool for me. If I can outline it right, I am more confident I can communicate the theology clearly.

And, as always, the goal in such clarity is that our Lord would receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21),

Randal

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Two Reasons We Might Lose Our Listeners

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At times, we might contribute to this classic parishioner, blank stare.

One advantage of experiencing a couple of surgeries to extract a 6mm kidney stone from my right kidney was the opportunity to listen to a couple of sermons.

Preachers can relate to this. I was sincerely wanting to worship, not critique the sermon. But while I was worshiping, the homiletician in me thought, “Try to figure out the cause of the blank stare syndrome.”

I came up with two things over the past few weeks. They may help you as you prepare to preach.

First, I help create the blank stare when there is a lull in the emotional connection. There are sermon minutes filled with minutia that do not engage the listener. The data is not connected to any worship response. Many listeners who take God’s Word seriously will endure these minutes until the impact returns. But it’s painful for them and I don’t wan to cause this.

Second, I also help create the blank stare when there is a break in the logical flow of the subject matter. Too many minutes elapse as too many details are disconnected to the main worship response. And this can all happen within a well-crafted outline. Listeners easily lose their place in a sermon. Sometimes we lead them down this path of inactive learning by not connecting the individual concepts to their worship.

The two reasons I’ve listed cover the emotional and logical components of listening. Both are equally important for communication.

When you’re on vacation this summer and you’re a worshiper, play the reason-for-the-blank-stare game. God knows why you’re doing it. You want to be a better preacher. See if you experience what I did and for similar reasons.

And He will receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) because of His gift and your extra effort to improve.

Randal

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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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What I learned From Listening To Someone Else Preach

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Due to sickness earlier in the week, my Elders strongly suggested I only preach once yesterday. That meant I had the privilege of listening to one of my colleagues preach. Like many of you, I don’t get the opportunity to listen to someone else preach live too often. I learned that:

  1. Our relationship with our listeners is an important part of preaching. My friend has great rapport with our faith-family and it showed in his preaching and our worshiping in the Word.
  2. Powerful illustrations can overpower the sermon point. He told a “killer” (literally!) story about Zwingli’s brutal treatment of Anabaptists. The next thing you say after the story is over is critical for regaining attention back to the message. That’s the time for a succinct, well-worded sentence or two of how the Text affects the listener’s relationship with God. If you don’t do that, the sheer force of the illustration can hijack the sermon.
  3. Don’t break eye-contact when you arrive at your key statements. You probably have them written down in your notes. You want to say them just right, but you also need to impress it on your listeners and that happens best while you’re looking at them.
  4. Work extra hard to maintain good energy while covering a long list of commands. In the preaching covered yesterday there were at least seven commands in a row. It is difficult, next to impossible to keep a congregation engaged as you explain each item. Carefully consider how you’ll pace yourself through the list. Think about an approach–cover each equally (say a minute and a half each?), focus on a few, or group some of them. Whatever you decide, remember how difficult it is to keep a sermon’s energy high as you move through the list.
  5. My mind wandered during the sermon. I know, right?! But it did. It’s difficult to keep our listeners with us as the minutes go by. It’s critical, then, to keep bringing them back, especially by reminding them of the big idea.

May these takeaways add to God’s glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21),

Randal

P.S. For what it’s worth, that sermon was very good!

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Evaluate Your Critical First Hour Of Study Each Monday Morning

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Last week I enjoyed a wonderful afternoon conducting a preaching workshop at Lancaster Bible College. I am also currently teaching some keen students at LBC/Capital Seminary and Graduate School in Lancaster, PA and Greenbelt, MD. My interaction confirmed that one Bible study exercise is critical: tracing the argument or flow of thought of the author.

I explained that this is how I spend my first hour of study every Monday morning. Before I try to figure out what a preaching portion means, I want to know how it means what it means. In other words, I spend the first hour show how the author makes meaning through the argument or flow of thought. I begin by asking the Lord, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law,” (Psalms 119:18) and then I dive into the text’s structure. I consider this to be the foundation for exposition.

This involves dividing the preaching portion into its smaller thought blocks, summarizing the meaning of the blocks, and writing out the logical transitions that the author uses to move from one block to the next.

(By the way, if you try this with Luke 15, you will discover that it would be impossible to end the sermon focusing on the younger brother and those prodigals which are usually encouraged to “come home.”)

It is impossible for me to overstate the importance of this first hour for understanding how meaning is made.

Below I’ve included an example of my mornings first hour.

Calvary Bible Church

May 8, 2016 AM

Judges 10:1-16

This is God’s Word.

1.

10 After Abimelech there arose to save Israel Tola the son of Puah, son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, and he lived at Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. 2 And he judged Israel twenty-three years. Then he died and was buried at Shamir. Post-Abimelech judge #1 is Tola. In matter of fact fashion God records, “…there arose to save Israel…” It is a subtle reminder of our plight as Christians in this world.

3 After him arose Jair the Gileadite, who judged Israel twenty-two years. 4 And he had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys, and they had thirty cities, called Havvoth-jair to this day, which are in the land of Gilead. 5 And Jair died and was buried in Kamon. PA judge #2 is Jair. We learn some nice facts about him (“…30…30…30…”).

6 The people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. And they forsook the Lord and did not serve him. In v. 6 we learn how many false gods there are to worship! Each region had their own deity. Each deity had the ability to lure God’s people away from God. As a whole God’s people took their affections away from God and they stopped serving Him.

 7 So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the Ammonites, 8 and they crushed and oppressed the people of Israel that year. For eighteen years they oppressed all the people of Israel who were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead. 9 And the Ammonites crossed the Jordan to fight also against Judah and against Benjamin and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was severely distressed. In vv. 7-9 we read of the repeated experience of God’s people. Throughout the book of Judges we’ve seen this happen: God’s people commit idolatry, in anger God sells them into the hands of fierce enemies who oppress them, and “Israel was severely distressed.” It teaches us the devastating effect of worshiping false gods.

10 And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, saying, “We have sinned against you, because we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals.” 11 And the Lord said to the people of Israel, “Did I not save you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines? 12 The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you, and you cried out to me, and I saved you out of their hand. 13 Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will save you no more. 14 Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.” We’ve also seen God’s people yell out to their real God to save them again and again. Like before, they make a clean confession: “We have sinned against you…” Let’s make sure we understand this confession. Why do they say they have sinned against the Lord? Where does this understanding come from? Look back at the OT…

But this time our God seems to have lost His patience! Look at vv. 11-14. He sounds very irritated with them! “Did I not save you from….I saved you….I will save you no more. God and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.” Wow! We have sayings like: “You made your bed, now go lie in it.” If God sticks to His guns, then His people are doomed. The false gods have enslaved them; they cannot save them.

Has the Lord’s patience run out?!

 15 And the people of Israel said to the Lord, “We have sinned; do to us whatever seems good to you. Only please deliver us this day.” 16 So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord, and he became impatient over the misery of Israel. In v. 15 God’s people repeat their confession: “We have sinned…” Then they add, “do to us whatever seems good to you. Only please deliver us this day.” God’s people would rather face the judgment of God than face more oppression from their enemies.

Then, in v. 16 there is an act of genuine repentance: “So they put away the foreign gods…and served the Lord…” Repentance is a critical part of the Christian life…

Then, we learn that the Lord “became impatient over the misery of Israel.” A moment ago I mentioned that it seemed the Lord was becoming impatient with His people. Now we learn that the Lord has had enough of His people suffering at the hand of their enemies. This impatience, however, strikes the Lord after genuine repentance has taken place. If the Lord acts on His impatience over Israel’s misery, that can mean only good things for Israel!

Gospel:

Response:

This helps me see how the author presents theology for the Church. Since theology is conveyed through this narrative, I do not want to break the narrative flow in creating this sermon. Consider making this action in the first hour of study your foundation for Sunday’s exposition.

Preach well.

Randal

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Surprising Help from a Critical and Historical Commentary!

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Hermeneia

It is not often that a critical and historical commentary delivers consistent help to preachers beyond technical, exegetical fragments. That’s why I was surprised to see the Daniel commentary in the Hermeneia Series contain a segment called, Structure and Unity.

As Collins goes through each large segment in Daniel’s gospel, along with the brilliant technical stuff, he includes a brief treatment of the segment’s structure and unity:

Major points are listed (I, II, III, etc.)

Verse parameters (I. 3:1-7, for instance)

Summary statement (I. 3:1-7. Introduction)

Summary of the section (two or three sentences describing the content of the section)

For the past few years, I’ve been assigning a similar assignment to my students. I call it, Major Thought Blocks. I believe it to be the most important aspect of developing genuine expository sermons. It’s the first phase of my own study every Monday morning. Here’s why…

Theology is conveyed through the structure of your preaching portion. Unity of thought is also conveyed through the structure. Disregard or break from the structure and, chances are good (within the realm of the sovereignty of God, of course!), that you will stray from the theology and unity of the preaching portion.

So, I add only one more thing to the list above. Along with major points, verse parameters, summary statement, and summary of the section’s content, add logical transitions between the major points. That allows you to track the Author’s/author’s flow of thought. It’s that flow that communicates the theology (whether narrative or epistle).

Before Sunday, see if you have identified these components in your preaching portion. See if your sermon idea matches what is being communicated. If your sermon’s structure and unity is different from the preaching portion’s, check to see how different your message is from the message of the Text.

Preach well for God’s reputation in the Church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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What do you do in the first hour of sermon preparation?

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One of the many pluses of attending the annual meetings of the Evangelical Homiletics Society meetings is the opportunity in between meetings to sit with excellent pastor/homileticians. One of them is Lee Eclov, author of Pastoral Graces. We were talking about the importance of answering this question: What do you do in the first hour of sermon preparation? We both felt that question revealed much about a pastor’s method.

I’ve provided a screenshot of what I do every Monday morning. I begin by getting the big picture of the preaching portion’s logic (how the author has chosen to communicate theology). In the example above, I’ve identified 10 thought-blocks that will be explored in the sermon, plus the final “gospel” section with which I close out every sermon (how Christ-crucified creates the desire and capacity for the Believer to do what God is commanding).

I believe this may be one of the most important actions of an expositor. I call it pre-exegesis, but that might not be accurate. Before doing any real study of the passage, I want to capture the logic or structure of the theology. It helps me see early on how sermon time on Sunday might be divided (will I divide the time evenly among the ten or eleven thought-blocks or give more time to some?).

While conducting a preaching workshop a few weeks ago, I realized again how often pastors begin their sermon preparation by straying from the logic of the Text. When that occurs, it’s difficult to relay God’s message from the passage. It’s not that you won’t be biblical, but, rather, you won’t be biblical enough.

I realize you’re busy, but I wouldn’t mind reading a brief summary of what you do in your first hour of study (I’m assuming that you are praying some kind of, “Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of Your law” type prayer).

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

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What Keeps Your Sermon From Fragmenting?

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I recently returned from a wonderful week with doctoral students enrolled in Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary’s Doctor of Ministry track, Preaching the Literary Forms of the Bible.  We met on GCTS’s Charlotte, NC campus.  One of the things we talked about was keeping our sermons from fragmenting.  Fragmentation happens when I (1) fail to follow the flow of thought created by the Author/author or (2) I choose to replace the existing flow of thought with my own deficient presentation.  We noticed a tendency of not clearly stating the logical connections between moves or thought-blocks in the sermon.  What is clear in the mind of the preacher is unclear to the listener.  While you’re developing your sermon double-check all your transitions as you move from major clause to major clause.  Ask if you are carrying the logic forward.  As you know, theology is conveyed more through the logical flow of thought than in the isolated content.