Category Archives: sermon development

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Why I Encourage Preachers to Read the Best Theologians

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Bavinck’s one-volume is certainly a good one to read!

If someone asked me to suggest one thing to do to help improve their preaching, I would say:

“Be an avid reader of the best theologians.”

Here’s an example that shows the potential payoff…

The first part of Genesis 3:15 reads,

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring

Bavinck makes a very simple, but profound observation. He says that this is one of the earliest references to the grace of God in the Bible. He reminds readers of a kind of relationship that the serpent and Eve (and Adam) had earlier in the chapter. They were in agreement.

But God announces what He would do from that moment on in redemptive history: “I will put enmity between you and the woman…”

What would have happened to that relationship if God hadn’t graciously stepped in? The fact that God did step in and created enmity explains all dimensions of spiritual warfare and victory in the Christian life.

Sermons that say this are better. Period. I should have observed this through the years, but didn’t. I am indebted to Bavinck for seeing what I missed. This has happened a lot to me this past year as I have read him bit by bit.

Preachers who want to function as theologians for their flocks do well to devour the best theologians they can access and/or afford. Because…

  1. This helps stem the tide of theology-lite sermons created by steady diets of topical preaching in the name of almighty relevancy.
  2. It forces us to think theologically at a depth beyond the norm.
  3. It supplements our exegesis like nothing else I know of.

May our Lord continue to receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as we do our best by His Spirit and with our Spirit-given abilities/opportunities to be the best theologians we can for the faith-families entrusted to our care.

Randal

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Why BAGD Is Important For Preaching

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The standard Greek Lexicon is extremely helpful for the definition of key terms.

I currently have the privilege of teaching another Advanced Homiletics class to Masters level students at Lancaster Bible College | Capital Seminary & Graduate School.

During a recent residency I warned the class that an annual complaint of mine is that students at this level are rarely using the best sources for conversation partners (commentaries, etc.).

One of those quality sources is an old standard lexicon I call BAGD.

I wrote it out that way when I was in seminary in the ’80’s after the order of the last names of the four authors listed on the front cover of the book. Many called it, BDAG (pronouncing it “bee-dag”). As you can see from the image, only half as many authors are listed now.

But, what is more important is how useful this tool is for foundational exegetical work. Here’s an example…

This past Sunday I was preaching Colossians 1:9-11 which contains the concept of God’s will. Listen to the precision of BAGD’s definition:

“What [God] wishes to bring about by the activity of others, to whom [He] assigns a task.”

I think many of us could have gotten the part of God’s will reflecting what He wants to do. But notice how BAGD includes the thought of what He wants to do through an assigned task. It was a simple step for me to recite this definition and then ask all of us if we are aware of the task God has assigned to us. Then, one step further, of course, to accomplishing that task.

You might be one of my readers who regularly uses such lexicons like this. You know how valuable it is. If you are not in the habit of using it, consider it. The Logos version is helpful because of how everything is linked to biblical texts. The search-ability is priceless.

And you will be rewarded with precise definitions that will add clarity to your preaching. That, in turn, will help ensure that God receives glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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At the Start of a New Homiletics Class I Am Reminded That…

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There’s nothing better than studying preaching together!

I am extremely fortunate for another opportunity to meet a class of preaching students at LBC|Capital. We are just completing week #2 and are headed into residency week. It will be great to see everyone face-to-face.

Gearing up for the course and evaluating the work being turned in provides a chance for me to review some of the more important aspects of preaching. So, at the beginning of this new Advanced Homiletics class I am reminded that…

  1. it’s extremely helpful to think about intention as a part of your exegesis. That way you don’t separate your exegesis from your application and application doesn’t have to come last in the process.
  2. the amount of verses you select for preaching can either help or hinder your ability to identify the theology of a preaching portion. Cutting the text too short or too long can create problems.
  3. your method of sermon preparation should include a way for you to distinguish between big and little ideas in your text. And, then, of course, you need to be able to show how all sized ideas interrelate to make meaning.
  4. finding the meaning of a passage begins, not by searching for what the meaning is, but how the meaning is made (how the structure of the particular genre of your preaching portion communicates).
  5. when Christ-centered preaching is done well, your listeners will never leave church as good moralists.

That’s probably enough for now, but I do love thinking about some of the key elements to developing a sermon that represents God well.

And may our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus as a result of the way in which you read and communicate the sacred Scriptures (Ephesians 3:21),

Randal

P.S. If you’re free this coming Friday or Saturday, whether for the day, half-day, or even an hour or so, find PAS 513 Advanced Homiletics in LBC|Capital’s Lancaster campus (2nd floor of the academic building).

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How What Evangelicals Currently Believe Affects Our Preaching

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The current State of Theology helps us know the doctrines in danger.

In preparing for some new disciple-making initiatives in the coming year, a colleague of mine at church and I have been collecting some data on what Evangelicals believe. In the process of skimming some of the findings, I realized how important this data can be for our preaching.

[For years, I have watched the survey results reveal a slow, but steady movement away from orthodox beliefs. This has caused me to see at least part of my preaching ministry as an attempt to keep my listeners from losing important aspects of the Christian faith.]

If you’re interested, I suggest you look at what Ligonier and Lifeway present about the State of Theology (thestateoftheology.com).

What you will find is that Evangelicals are moving away from traditional beliefs about Christology, including things as foundational as whether or not Jesus was created by God.

When I presented some the findings to our Wednesday night crowd, two folks quickly replied: “Well, I wonder how the survey defined ‘Evangelical’?” That’s a very common Fundamentalist reaction. My reply was that it doesn’t matter. Even if the word wasn’t defined as tightly as some of us might want, the stats still show that some of our parishioners might be experiencing a similar shift.

If you’ve used such info before, then you know that the survey answers help us know what doctrines we need to highlight in our preaching. For instance, in one recent survey I saw, three of the five questions/answers involved the Person and work of Christ.

May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as we accurately preach Christ as God portrays Him in His Word.

Randal

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How Rules for Exegesis Affect Preaching

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The Implication of “Scripture’s exactness” on our preaching

If you’ve read some of my material through the years, you know that most of my reading centers on hermeneutics, exegesis, and theological studies. The reason is because I put a premium on those topics in the context of my preaching and teaching homiletics. The reason is because I value their contribution over most, purely homiletical writings. The reason is because of my conviction that precision is more important than presentation.

[Caveat: however, I work hard at both precision and presentation and realize that poor preaching can eclipse the exegetical/theological precision used in the sermon development stage.]

Last week I began reading, Biblical Reasoning: Christological and Trinitarian Rules for Exegesis, by R. B. Jamieson and Tyler R. Wittman.

Chapter 3 contains an interesting discussion of “Scripture’s Exactness” (p. 50). The section begins:

“Early Christian interpreters often spoke of Scripture’s ‘exactness’…to underscore divine teaching’s intentionality, reliability, and attention to detail” (p. 50).

The authors explore two implications of this concept.

First, God chooses His words very carefully. This is especially important when considering how many different authors, styles, and genres are in Scripture. God chooses those words very carefully (you will, no doubt, read this through the grid of your own view of inspiration).

Second, and I will quote them here, “what is taught carries a degree of precision that we must grasp” (p. 51).

Therefore, during sermon development it is important that I pay close attention to the words God uses to reveal Himself and His plan for His people. I cannot be a lazy reader, but a close reader of Scripture. That will serve my faith-family well as I prepare to read with them each Sunday.

The second implication for preaching is that, by God’s grace and the Spirit’s enablement, my precise understanding of Scripture must match Scripture’s precision. That almost always requires me and you to paraphrase and restate what God is saying precisely. That means you and I must choose our words and illustrations very carefully to be as precise as we can be. An example is our use of the word, trinity, or nature, words which may not be found in Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek.

Anyway, I hope you get a taste of how a doctrine such as Scripture’s exactness affects our preaching. May our contemplation of God’s inspired revelation and its implication result in God receiving glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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Think Twice Before Purchasing Someone Else’s Sermon Outlines

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It is very appealing to hear that purchasing someone else’s sermon outlines can save tons of time, but…

I love Logos as a tool and believe in using lots of tools. 99.9% of the time, I draw the line by refusing to use someone else’s sermon outline for my own preaching.

So, when I saw this ad by Logos, I thought I should send a caution. The product is:

Sermon Outlines For Busy Pastors (11 Volumes).

It is advertised this way:

“Today, pastors are busier than ever, with more time spent in ministry activities and less time spent in sermon preparation. Sermon Outlines for Busy Pastors: Sermons for All Occasions gives the busy pastor a head start on sermon preparation.

Pastors can save hundreds of hours a year, with the base research and layout for a year’s worth of sermons already in place.”

I have no doubt that this is true, but I believe it will cost most preachers way more than the cost of the product itself in terms of their preaching quality. I am not primarily thinking of plagiarism.

The reason is because of how important it is for preachers to identify their own style of outlining that works for them.

Whether preachers formally announces the main points or not, outlining shows how the preacher understands the logic of a text. That logic is critical for helping the sermon hold together for the listener.

Years ago, research showed that one common complaint from our listeners is that our sermons contain too many ideas. More than one thing contributes to this, but one important thing is whether or not we have presented a unifying logic. Outlines present that.

And one critical part of sermon preparation is identifying your own sense of the text’s interior logic.

Study other preacher’s outline if you can and you will see various ways in which outlines are done. But work hard at your own outline so that it works for you and your listeners. Let them see how the major thought blocks of your preaching portion hold together and our God will receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

P.S. My outline from yesterday’s sermon on Matthew 7:15-20 was:

  1. “Beware of false prophets…” (v. 15a)
  2. Here’s what to look for” (vv. 15b-18, 20)
  3. The implied warning to all of us (v. 19)

It worked for us. I felt I owned the logic of it. It made sense to me as a pathway to the theological interpretation of this part of the Sermon on the Mount.

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You’ve Heard of Thinking on Your Feet, but What About Listening on Your Feet?

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Are you able to listen to the Lord while you preach?

A couple of Sunday’s ago I experienced one of those times when I thought of something new while I was preaching. It wasn’t in my notes; it wasn’t even on my radar (I hadn’t had a fleeting thought that didn’t make it into my notes, only to be recalled while preaching.) In this case it was an illustration that came to me, one that really helped drive home the point in the text. I attributed it to the Holy Spirit’s help, not to something gastro-intestinal.

You too have probably had this happen. While you’re preaching or teaching you think on your feet. It can be described just as accurately as listening on your feet.

So, what has to happen for you and me to listen to the Spirit and learn while I’m preaching?

First, I do not think we can control this. If I remember correctly, the wind blows wherever it wants to. There is no formula that guarantees the Spirit will teach you something new, something substantial, every time you preach/teach.

But here are some things that may make it possible for the Spirit to teach me while I preach.

  • I choose to believe that just because my official study time and sermon prep is over, I am not done learning. I want to remain teachable and eager to learn from the Lord, especially while I am preaching.
  • The better I know my material, the better I am able to listen to the Lord while I am preaching. A good handle on the material means I don’t have to think about what to say next.
  • My congregants have some good insights that teach me while I am preaching. There are many times when dialogue teaches me. I had not thought of it and the thought of it added to my sermon. Technically, you might say that that was not the Spirit but another Christian. I agree. For the sake of this post, let’s say that the Spirit taught them, so He indirectly taught me.
  • Finally, I can preach and think at the same time. I don’t mean thinking about what to say, but really think about the Text and what it means. Ask yourself whether you are able to think and learn while you’re preaching. I don’t have to stop studying, stop listening to God, because I started to preach.

Anyway, I hope that you are able to invite the Spirit of God to teach you while you preach and teach His Word. In my case a couple of Sunday’s ago, the Lord received glory in the church and Christ Jesus because I was listening on my feet (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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A Cross-Eyed Reading of Matthew 6:19-24: “…if your eye is healthy…”

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This morning I had the privilege of preaching Matthew 6:19-24, part of Jesus’s famous Sermon on the Mount. The series reminded me how difficult it is sometimes to preach Christ from the Gospels.

Does that sound odd to you?

In Matthew 6 Jesus is teaching how He transforms people who receive Him. He does this in this section by giving both the negative and positive sides of instruction: “Don’t store up treasures on earth…but store up treasures in heaven…”

My current hermeneutical/homiletical practice requires a segment at the end of every sermon where I explain how Christ-crucified makes it possible for Believers to put his instructions into practice.

Matthew 6:19-24 posed quite a challenge, but I went this route:

Verse 22 reads in the ESV, “So, if your eye is healthy…” The KJV reads, “single.” In this context the healthy or single eye is one that provides a true vision of the inestimable value of God’s kingdom work. To key off from the KJV reading we might say that the situation describes a person who is single-minded in their focus on God and His work (in contrast to valuing money and the things money can buy).

I reasoned that in His life, Jesus was the most single-minded Person who has ever lived. And because He was that kind of Persons, in His death, He can now provide His righteousness, part of which is creating the same kind of perspective or vision. The genuine Christ-follower now has the desire and capacity to follow Jesus’s instruction in this part of His famous Sermon.

That’s an example of a possible path from a Gospel, didactic Text, to the cross, using wording from that Text.

And I hope that as you continue to practice a Christ-centered hermeneutic/homiletic our Lord will receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21). He can and does, of course, even if you don’t. A side-benefit of cross-eyed preaching is you avoid the phenomenon of sending parishioners out of church trying harder to achieve the ultra-righteousness which Christ demands (cf. Matthew 5:20).

Randal

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An Ancient Quote Connected to, Preaching’s Not That Hard

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Kind of reminds me of all the steps in hermeneutics and homiletics textbooks!

Last week I took a chapter from leading golf instructor, Gavin Flo, and suggested that, “Preaching’s not that hard.” Let me follow that up with a quote from an ancient systematic theology textbook.

In volume 1 of Mastricht’s, Theoretical-Practical Theology, he begins with a chapter, The Best Method of Preaching.

I was relieved to discover that one characteristic of the best method is brevity. [Notice the method is brief, not their sermons!]

I thought you might enjoy hearing what preaching textbooks were like in the middle of the 17th century (Mastricht’s first four books in the TPT were published in 1682), especially in light of my attempt last week to say that preaching’s not that hard.

“To all these things is added the brevity of the method….For I have never been able to approve the practice of those who composed dense volumes concerning the method of preaching, the perusal and reading of which demands as much time of theology students as a proper syntagma [set] of theology” (p. 4)

In typical, ancient form, Mastricht’s explanation of the best method is detailed. If you can access it, you’ll enjoy the examples he provides from a text in Colossians.

If you’re interested in shorter and, possibly not as well-known textbooks on preaching, you might enjoy something like, The Four Pages of the Sermon, by Paul Scott Wilson. Or maybe an older book like, Preaching with Purpose, by Jay Adams.

As I wrote last week, if the Lord continues to allow me the privilege to preach, I will continue to work hard at improving the art and craft. But I hope to do so within the borders of a method that is relatively brief, especially in comparison to a systematic theology set.

May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as you work your method to the max this week.

Randal

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Preaching’s Not That Hard

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Sometimes it’s helpful to simplify what appears to be a very complex action.

Two recent events created this post.

First, I saw this golf teacher, Gavin Flo, on Instagram and heard him say with perfect inflection: “Golf’s not that hard.”

Since I only play golf maybe three times a year at most, I don’t consider myself to be a golfer. My son, Michael, is an excellent golfer and we’ve been able to get out to the driving range a couple of times and play a round or two. That means I am well aware of my weaknesses. Gavin simplifies the action of swinging a golf club and I find it a helpful way for me to learn.

Second, I received an email from a pastor whose wife heard a presentation I gave that combined hermeneutics and homiletics. The wife knew sermon preparation was posing some problems so she handed her husband the notes she took and said he might want to get in touch with me. He did and I offered to meet and talk about the process.

As the pastor described his frustration, he highlighted the fact that textbooks describe so many steps that the process of sermon preparation becomes overwhelming.

So, in the spirit of Gavin Flo, I say: “Preaching’s not that hard.” (with his perfect inflection, of course)

[I need to be honest: golf is hard and if you’ve tried it, you know that. And preaching? But effective teachers of golf and preaching have a way of simplifying the processes. Here’s my attempt to simplify…]

First, as you head into each Sunday sermon, complete this sentence based on your preaching portion: “We worship this morning by ______________.” This is your attempt to show how God designed your Text to function for the church.

Second, allow the structure of your preaching portion to determine the structure of your sermon. This is your attempt to trace the argument or flow of thought in your Text. God conveys theology through structure that may vary from genre to genre.

Third, while you are preaching, from start to finish talk to your listeners about them from the Bible. That’s different from talking to them about the Bible. God is addressing them and so are we.

Finally, while you are preaching, communicate in a way that conveys that this is life and death. This involves genuine-for-you passion, intensity, conviction. This makes the preaching authentic and real.

See. Preaching’s not that hard. And our Lord will receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus as we keep working hard at this incredible privilege and responsibility (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

P.S. Just like golf, you and I will spend a lifetime trying to improve our skills so let’s keep this concept of “simplify” in perspective.