Category Archives: imagination

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One Goal of Sermon Application: What I’m Learning from Reading Jonathan Edwards’ Earliest Sermons

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“And in a word, the Application will be found to be the Best part of the Sermon.” (J.E.)

When you read Edwards’s sermons, you soon realize that sermon application can also be called “Improvement or Use” (p. 38, Kimnach). It took me a while to get use to “improving” on a doctrine, but now I get what Edwards is trying to do.

Kimnach describes the approach:

“Application is concerning with experience and practice.” (p. 39)

Most of us think of sermon application in terms of transformation of attitude or action dictated by the Scriptures. But Kimnach writes,

“But as employed by Edwards, the Application also has a subtler use, as is indicated by his own statement in this transitional passage between Doctrine and Application of Gen. 19:14.

‘The Improvement we shall make of this doctrine shall be to offer some considerations to make future punishment seem real to you.'” (p. 39, emphasis added)

So how does Edwards do that? Here’s an example from the sermon, God’s Excellencies:

APPLICATION.

We are now come to make some improvement of this glorious truth….

How dreadful must his wrath be! If God [is] infinitely great and powerful, how terrible must his wrath and anger be; what a miserable creature–how inexpressibly miserable–must a poor, weak, sinner be in the hands of an angry and enraged God, who can shake the whole earth in pieces in a moment, and can annihilate the whole universe in the twinkling of an eye. (p. 426, emphasis added)

All of this is built off from the doctrine of the excellency of God. The logic is that sin against such an excellent Being must be extremely dreadful.

Edwards improves the doctrine by moving from the truth to an implication of that truth, an implication that his hearers must experience as real.

One more example:

“O what is a worm, to bear the weight of the anger of so great a being?” (p. 427)

May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as we explain the Doctrine and then spend time on its Improvement, doing our best to help our listeners experience it as real.

Randal

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What Is True Vs. What Is Real: What I’m Learning By Reading Jonathan Edwards’s Earliest Sermons

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Replacing an emphasis on what is true with what is real.

In Kimnach’s introduction to Edwards’s sermon, The Nakedness Of Job, he explains one of Edwards’s most pressing preaching issues. Kimnach puts it this way:

“the problem for men is not one of coming to terms with truth, but rather with reality” (p. 400).

Edwards put it like this:

“All the world knows the truth of this doctrine perfectly well, but though they know, yet it don’t seem at all real to them…” (pp. 400, 406)

Kimnach keenly summarizes Edwards’s goal:

“Calling attention to the reality with accepted truths, or discovering a rhetoric that would make truth real to his audience, was to become the central mission for Edwards as a preacher” (p. 400).

Edwards knew that knowing something is true is not necessarily the same as knowing something is real.

This is something for me to keep thinking about as I study each week:

(1) What is the reality that accompanies the accepted truth?

(2) How can I preach and teach in such a way that can help my listeners sense the reality in the truth they know?

It’s an interesting look at what causes a person to implement Scripture as an act of worship. If it’s real to them, it moves them. Emotions alone can do it too, but Edwards, the author of Religious Affections, would have none of that.

I hope this angle helps you in your mission so God continues to receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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Edwards’s Unique Angle On Application: What I’m Learning From Reading Jonathan Edwards’s Early Sermons

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I’ve learned that Edwards referred to the application of a sermon as “improvement or use” (Kimnach, p. 38). The improvement section of the sermon was usually the longest of the three that we explored in previous posts (text, doctrine, application).

Listen to how Edwards transitions to the application section of Genesis 19:14 defines application:

“The Improvement we shall make of this doctrine shall be to offer some considerations to make future punishment seem real to you” (p. 39).

What we normally think of as application–putting Scripture into practice or applying life to the Bible–includes helping our listeners experience the reality of a Scripture. In the case of Genesis 19:14 the Lord was about to bring judgment down on the city, but Lot’s son-in-laws didn’t take the warning seriously. Edwards feared some of his listeners would not be able to experience the reality of God’s judgment.

So, Edwards will create hypothetical situations that help his listeners imagine what it’s like to enter God’s story. He calls this the

“willing suspension of disbelief” (p. 39).

Edwards reminds us that, deep down, we struggle believing God’s reality as described/prescribed in Scripture. So the improvement of a biblical text involves helping our listeners suspend their disbelief so they will believe and obey God’s Word.

[Remember, every act of disobedience is first and foremost an act of unbelief. So we attack disobedience by attacking unbelief.]

Edwards shined at creating these hypothetical situations through analogy. In his first sermon, Christian Happiness, he helps us experience not being “afraid of any temporal afflictions whatsoever” (p. 301) with this analogy:

“the pain of the prick of a pin” (p. 302).

Edwards reasons that the prick lasts a minute but yields seventy years of prosperity. The prick of a pin is nothing to fear in this case. The same goes for seventy years of trouble in this world compared to “an eternity of the highest happiness” (p. 302).

Trust me. That section will have you feeling differently about temporal troubles!

So, before Sunday, look at your sermon application and see if you are helping your listeners suspend their unbelief for a moment so they embrace God’s world as their own. And He will receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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Why Your Imagination Should Supplement Your Exegesis

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Sailing in a paper ship

Einstein said, “Imagination is the highest form of research.” A bit of an overstatement, I guess. But if you do a google search on the word, imagination,  you’ll quickly see how important imagination is to our world.

But our question is, Is imagination important to our sermons and communicating God’s Word? As you can see from the title of this blog, my answer is a resounding, “Yes.” Let me give you an example.

In Luke 22:39-62 Jesus tells His disciples, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” (v. 40).

Our exegesis might delve into the meaning of prayer. You might say something like: “Prayer is asking God for something you desperately need, but can’t get for yourself.” Exegesis might also explain the way prayer protects the Believer from temptation.

Enter imagination.

“Imagine all the temptations you did not face because you prayed to God.”

Or…

“Imagine how the details of your day changed because you prayed to God for protection.” (the assumption, of course, is that God might not only protect you through temptation, but also cause circumstances to occur in such a way that you avoid a temptation)

Now, let me ask you, what does this exercise in imagination do for our listeners? What does imagination do that exegesis doesn’t do? In this case, imagination moves me to wonder and praise and thanksgiving. Watch the expression on your congregants’ faces when you include imagination. The exegetical facts don’t do that. They’re necessary, but not enough.

Before Sunday, see if there is a place where you can let your imagination take the sermon places where exegesis can’t. Imagine that your imaginative exegesis moves them to worship.

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

Randal