The statement means much more than is being said! Introducing Illocutionary Intent-Informed Meaning (II-M) and Why it Matters
This past Monday I was privileged to present some of my more important Ph.D. dissertation findings to the Alcuin Society of Lancaster Bible College | Capital Seminary & Graduate School. Many thanks to faculty and guests who were extremely gracious.
Here are a few things that are pertinent to preachers:
Learn to think about application early in the sermon development process. The old school approach was to wait on application because if entertained too early, the process had the potential to skew exegesis.
In order to think about application earlier, the search for application must be a part of the search for exegetical/theological meaning.
In order for that to happen your exegetical method must include the search for what I call, Illocutionary Intent. This involves looking for clues as to what the biblical author wants to do to the readers.
If you like, try to create a meaning summary, II-M, for Luke 15. In other words, your one-sentence meaning summary must include an element of what the author intends to do to the reader. Or, to put it another way, make sure your meaning summary includes the intended application or response of the church to Luke 15.
Try it and see how you do.
Also, if, like me, you’re already looking at a Text for this coming Sunday, see if you can detect the illocutionary intent of the author. This will give you a sneak peak at your primary sermon application and worship response of your congregants.
And may our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21),
Randal
P.S. I trust you enjoyed a wonderful Easter celebration!
This is the third post aimed at helping us think about adding theological depth to our preaching. The reason why it is important is because most of our exegetical methods do not include this aspect of sermon development.
At this stage of my thinking I am still considering answering the “Why?” question part of theological exegesis (TE). But I usually think of TE as exegeting a text in its broader immediate and canonical context so it functions for the church, part of theological interpretation (TI).
I am toying with terms like, Implicational Exegesis (IE), or Philosophical Exegesis (PE). I’ll take any suggestions.
Another example of this level of exegesis is in Matthew 1:23 “…they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us).”
Since Matthew already does the heavy lifting in the word study aspect of exegesis, it’s up to us to ask why the arrival of “God with us” is significant.
Well, I can tell you that the answer to that question is not easy to find in major commentaries. It will take much theological thinking, thus justifying the label of theological exegesis. We’re asking the question, “Where in the Bible do we learn the significance of having God with us?” and “When we locate such doctrine, what do we learn about what His presence means for His people?”
If we don’t reach that exegetical depth in our sermon, it will be impossible for listeners to connect emotionally with this stated fact. [I am using “connect emotionally” to convey the times when our parishioners feel praise welling up in them because of the reality.]
So, whatever we end up calling it, I find this to be an important, time consuming element of our exegetical practice.
And may our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as a result of our efforts to dig a bit deeper into His glorious revelation.
The longer I am privileged to serve as a pastor the more I feel the need to become a better theologian. And, so far, it looks like the three-volume translation of Mastricht’s systematic theology (“…originally written in Latin and subsequently translated into Dutch and now being simultaneously translated into English and re-translated into Dutch…”) is going to be a tremendous help.
Here’s why. First from the Editor’s Preface:
“As a systemic theology or body of divinity, this classic…combines a rigorous, biblical, and scholastic treatment of doctrine with the pastoral aim of preparing the reader to live for God through Christ.” (p. xi, emphasis added)
And from the Translator’s Preface:
“Mastricht is a pastor writing to train pastors…” (p. xvii)
And, if that wasn’t enough to sell me on its value:
“…Mastricht insisted that preaching and theology must be inextricably linked.” (p. xviii)
Finally, lo and behold, before the systematic theology begins, Mastricht decided to write the first 31 pages describing, “The Best Method of Preaching.”
For years I’ve had the privilege of teaching preaching. Each year I urge my new friends and colleagues in ministry to become better theologians for their flocks. One way to do that is to regularly read robust writings of ancient theologians (Petrus van Mastricht lived from 1630-1706).
If you’re a Jonathan Edwards fan, Neele writes, “And if the words of Edwards Amasa Park (1808-1900) can be relied upon, Jonathan Edwards Jr. (1745-1801) read Mastricht’s TPT seven times” (p. lvii). Edwards is quoted as saying that Mastricht’s book was “much better than…any other book in the world, excepting the Bible, in my opinion…” (p. lviii).
Pretty high praise coming from Edwards.
Lord willing, I am excited to read these volumes and see if it was worth Edwards reading it seven times.
More than that, I hope you will join me in becoming a better theologian for your faith-family so God receives glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).
Learn to get below the surface of theological concepts like “sin.”
A couple of weeks ago I posted on how answering the “why” question can add theological depth to our preaching.
First, when I advocate adding theological depth, I am not talking about the common notion that “deep” preaching is difficult to understand. I am talking about fleshing out the implications of key doctrines in a preaching portion. One way to do that is to look for unanswered “why” questions.
For instance, this coming Sunday, Lord willing I will be preaching Matthew 1:18-25. Verse 21 reads,
“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
One question and answer that adds theological depth to preaching this section is,
“Why is being saved from our sins so important?”
The text does not tell us. We add theological depth by answering that question for our listeners.
Probably our theologically astute listeners will respond with something like: “Having Jesus save us from our sins is important because we are under the condemnation of God.”
Very true, of course.
But what about the sanctifying effect of being saved from our sins? Most of our listeners will not think about the devastating effects of sin in our daily lives.
Consider this standard definition of sin:
any lack of conformity to the character of God, whether by act, disposition, or state (a definition that I still remember from my first year of ministry training back in 1980!).
Notice what is missing in this definition. It’s not that it’s not accurate; it’s just not accurate enough. What’s missing is the soul-destroying, joy-destroying effect of sin. And so in a sermon we could say something like:
“Having Jesus save us from our sins is important because not only are we under the condemnation of God, we are also slaves to soul-destroying, joy-destroying sins.”
My point is that many preaching portions demand us to answer this kind of “why” question. And when we do, our Lord will receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21),
Dave and I enjoyed fun times together at our Global Outreach Summit. He also has great interest in hermeneutics and homiletics.
Dave Shive is a 1968 graduate of Washington Bible College, and a 1972 graduate of Capital Bible Seminary with a Th.M. in New Testament Studies. He is also a 1994 graduate of the Baltimore Hebrew University where he received an M.A. in Biblical Literature. Dave also pursued doctoral studies at Baltimore Hebrew University.
He has spent the past 48 years in fulltime ministry as a pastor, Christian school director, college professor, and missions advocate.
Since 2008, Dave and Kathy have served as full time mission mobilizers. They are currently on staff with Frontier Ventures (formerly the U.S. Center for World Mission) in Pasadena, CA.
Dave and Kathy will celebrate their 54th wedding anniversary in June 2022. They have lived in Catonsville, MD, for 25 years. They have three married children, Dan, Mike, and Becky and are the proud grandparents of 11 grandchildren.
Working Harder to Preach Shorter
As a guest speaker, I was recently asked to limit my sermon to 25 minutes. As one who prefers 35 or 40 minutes to preach, I was confronted by a daunting challenge. Oddly enough, I find that preparing this short post on preaching short sermons is much more difficult than writing a longer post about preaching shorter sermons!
As I prepared my short(er) sermon, I recalled a senior pastor who, when asked by a guest preacher how long he could speak, replied, “Five minutes shorter than you think.” The senior pastor was probably thinking that he had heard many sermons that could be improved if only they were a bit shorter. One homiletics professor confided to me that each year one or two students would tell him that they could preach a better sermon in class if they were only allowed more pulpit time. The good prof’s response was always the same: “No, you couldn’t” (said with a smile).
As I was preparing my 25-minute sermon, the difficulties in preparing a shorter message were glaring. My struggle reminded me of the quote by Blaise Pascal: “I would have written a shorter letter, but I didn’t have the time.” Similar to Pascal, I realized I could preach a shorter sermon, but I would need a lot more prep time! Therein lies the dilemma of preaching with less allotted time.
To reduce the length of a sermon, more care is required in the selection of what to say. There also needs to be a ruthless culling of what NOT to say. Almost every pastor can agree that preaching for 25 minutes is harder than preaching for 45. Give me a text and I can preach on it for an hour with little preparation (I’m not saying it would be a good sermon!). But give me the same text and ask me to preach on it for 25 minutes and I would need significantly more prep time.
To preach a shorter sermon, one must be more deliberate, focused, conscious of every word, sentence, paragraph, and idea. Greater discipline is needed to make the best use of every precious minute. I found myself desperately returning again and again to my Big Idea to make sure everything I was saying was necessary and remained true to the text.
Oh, and a footnote to my story about my 25-minute sermon. When I arrived at my guest home the night before I was to preach, I was informed that I could take as much time as I needed! Relieved to hear that, I only exceeded my original time limit by a few minutes the next morning. I realized that my preparation for a 25-minute delivery enabled me to preach a much better sermon.This kind of sermon preparation is great practice in developing homiletical discipline. Try this sample exercise: If you have 40 minutes to deliver a sermon, prepare as if you only have 25 minutes to preach. See what happens!
What do you ask the Father for as you prepare your sermon/teaching?
For a number of reasons, through the years I have not spent time in my preaching classes to talk about the spiritual preparation of the preacher. That’s mostly because there are other classes devoted to that issue, classes such as, Spiritual Life, for instance.
However, I find it interesting and, more importantly, profitable, to read prayers. So, I thought I would share two that I pray before my study time. I may have given readers part of the second one before.
First, I pray Psalm 119:18
“Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.”
Since I preach out of the Old Testament frequently, that prayer has provided so much confidence through the years.
The second one is Thomas Aquinas’s pre-sermon preparation prayer (or more generally, his pre-study prayer):
“Ineffable Creator,
You are proclaimed the true font of light and wisdom, and the primal origin raised high beyond all things. Pour forth a ray of Your brightness into the darkened places of my mind; disperse from my soul the twofold darkness into which I was born: sin and ignorance. You make eloquent the tongues of infants. Refine my speech and pour forth upon my lips the goodness of Your blessing.
Grant to me keenness of mind, capacity to remember, skill in learning, subtlety to interpret, and eloquence in speech.May You guide the beginning of my work, direct its progress, and bring it to completion.
You Who are true God and true Man, who live and reign, world without end.
Amen.”
I was introduced to Aquinas’s prayer a few years ago and I have prayed the bold print part of his prayer ever since. This prayer has also provided confidence each week as I gear up for Sunday’s worship.
I am sure that you ask God for help. I am also sure He hears your prayers and that He receives glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) because of what you ask Him to do for you.
“Why?” is often the missing piece in our preaching.
If you’re preaching or teaching context is like mine, then most of your listeners are familiar with Christian or biblical language.
Early last week I heard an excellent preacher tell his listeners that reading their Bible this year would help them be more Christlikeness. I couldn’t agree more, especially since the preacher was careful to emphasize not only reading but appropriating Scripture or applying their lives to the Bible.
As I listened I asked whether the listeners knew why becoming more Christlike was a good thing for them. Congregants who know their Bibles well probably would readily admit that they want to be more Christlike, but would they, or my own parishioners, know why it’s good.
That brief sermon segment I heard on the radio helped me understand my need to explain the “why” of the doctrines I preach and teach.
Give it a try: Becoming more Christlike is an excellent goal for every Christian because __________________.
You could start with something like: “….because it is good for God’s reputation in the church and in the world.”
You could also explain that, “…because it is good for us. Period.”
You could also state that, “…because it is good for our witness in the world.”
I came away thinking that even if my listeners know the concept of being Christlike, they may not be able to articulate why it’s a good goal for them. If listened to my own sermons I might find that, too often, I leave this critical piece of the theological puzzle out.
As you craft your sermon/lesson this week, look for doctrine that your congregants know, but may not know the “why” attached to it. And may our Lord continue to receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as a result of your efforts.
This morning I had the privilege of reading 1 Thessalonians 5:14 with our faith-family. It is an excellent test case to continue our discussion in the previous post about how much original material we put into our sermons.
The reason is because it is a short verse that needs a heavy dose of explaining:
“And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.”
This means that much of the sermon contains the most precise, effective definitions we can get our hands on from Greek lexicons. Nothing original there.
So, what exactly do I bring to the equation with a text like this?
I selected the text because of our current mini-series on our faith-family’s core values.
That means I bring congregational purpose to this sermon, a purpose that, I hope, matches God’s purpose for this verse.
Part of my job is to convince our listeners that this is critical (“…we urge you…”) and that they all have this responsibility (“…brothers…”), not just the leadership. These are implications of the explanations of meaning. Definitions alone won’t go there, but we need to.
Then, I needed to help everyone see how important it is for us to care for each other like this. God decided to give us these four instructions at the end of the little letter. They must help a faith-family flourish spiritually. I helped them see the importance of these instructions by asking them what a local church would look like that didn’t treat each other like this.
I wanted to make sure everyone realized that there are times when they might find themselves in one of the categories and in need of someone else’s assistance. Otherwise, we need to be ready to add real ministry to our small talk because it’s possible that whoever we’re fellowshipping with is in one of the categories and needs the appropriate response.
Finally, I wanted to connect v. 14 with the the early part of the letter where the gospel and its transforming power is mentioned. This helps us see that God’s salvation in Christ creates the desire and capacity for us to respond well to each other. That way applying these instructions is a matter of genuine faith-at-work in a faith-family.
There may have been more, but this is a good amount of material that is more or less my doings. Before this coming Sunday, consider what kinds of things you contribute to your sermon and may our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) through your efforts.
Thinking about what I actually bring to the equation for a given Sunday Sermon
This weekend I am thinking about what I actually bring to the equation with respect to sermon development. I had the privilege to preach Luke 14:25-35 this morning where Jesus explains the high cost of following Him.
Sometimes I feel that I contribute very little except for the ability to read the best material that other scholars have provided. It is an important part of preaching, but I thought we might give this some thought.
First, is this feeling true? To what degree do I add original material to my sermons? Second, if it were true, is that okay?
So, first, it is not true. Each week I select my preaching portion, trace the argument of that Scripture, and begin my analysis without consulting any of the best exegetes and theologians I can access. Being able to read Hebrew and Greek help me use excellent lexicons to get to critical definitions-in-context. Oh, and God’s Spirit operates in answer to my prayers for insight: “Lord, grant to me keenness of mind, capacity to remember, skill in learning, subtlety to interpret…”
But, more than that, each Monday provides an opportunity to also identify the big idea and intention of that passage. I now know what God intends to do to those in our faith-family that have ears to hear. And I know enough of the flock to know this is going to be a very important act of watching over souls.
Second, if it were true that I brought very little to the sermon equation, it would not be okay. God has called me and is equipping me to help shepherd a little flock. Not someone else. So, while I might benefit from Marshall’s fine treatment of Luke 14, it can’t be Marshall’s sermon.
As we head back to work tomorrow morning and begin preparing for our next sermon, let’s enjoy our time with God and His Word so He receives glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).
I remember thinking: “Everybody I’m reading quotes from C. S. Lewis and Jonathan Edwards!” What’s up with that?!?!
God has been gracious to me again this past year and given me yet another opportunity to teach preaching to students pursuing their Master’s degree as part of their training. Once again this year I said something like:
“Read and think hard to become a pastor-theologian for your faith-family.”
Each year part of my privilege involves listening to my new friends preach sermons as their final project/assignment for the semester in Advanced Homiletics. Each year I think to myself something like:
“Keep encouraging them to read and think hard to become a pastor-theologian for their faith-families.”
The sermons often contain the results of good exegesis, but many are a bit on the lighter side when it comes to theological thinking. I hear solid definition of key terms–word studies; I hear less solid thinking with respect to the why’s and how’s of our relationship to these well-defined concepts.
So, if you were interested in continuing to grow as a theologian, one easy and effective way to proceed is to consider reading Crossway’s series of leading theologians on the Christian Life. I am just completing Lewis on the Christian Life and it has been one of my top five reads in my lifetime. Really. Though not a theologian, Lewis’s thinking is unparalleled (which is not the same as saying he was a good exegete). Joe Rigney’s book, however, is excellent. And the other books I’ve read in the series are also extremely good.
It seems like modern pastor-theologians that are worth studying always quote the likes of Lewis and also Jonathan Edwards. I encourage you to join that club so our Lord continues to receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21),
Randal
P.S. Rigney’s analysis of Lewis’s thoughts on the corruption of human love and how temptation works on men and women is an example of how such thinking adds theological depth to sermons.
