Category Archives: theological exegesis

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How Psalm 92 Functions for the Church: Theological Interpretation and Preaching the Psalms

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When the Psalmist asserts himself by stating reality, something that is true.

I had the privilege of preaching Psalm 92 this morning. It begins:

“It is good to give thanks to the Lord…to sing praises…to declare your steadfast love…and your faithfulness…” (vv. 1-2)

This is an example of the illocutionary category called, an assertive. I wrote about all five illocutionary categories in my last post. The categories are important because they can help show what the Psalmist intends to do to us readers.

In Psalm 92 the opening assertive states a reality with the intention of eliciting faith in all of us readers. The Psalmist intends for all of us to believe that this reality is true and respond accordingly. In the case of vv. 1-2 God says it’s good to do three things.

In v. 6 we read, “The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand this…” Here is another example of an assertive. This time the stated reality works in the opposite direction. Whereas in vv. 1-2 the stated reality is desirable, in v. 6 the Psalmist intends for us to avoid this reality: we believe this is true and avoid being like this.

If you take a moment to read Psalm 92 you’ll see that the Psalm functions by presenting these types of stated realities. When we preach this Psalm we encourage our listeners to respond according to the Psalmist’s intentions. Those intentions are based on the illocutionary categories.

Is this important? Yes.

Illocutionary intent, according to speech act theory, is part of meaning. Psalm 92 means something at the level of illocutionary intent listed above. This provides a critical link between standard meaning and application.

May our Lord continue to receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) when you practice theological interpretation and preach/teach the Psalms.

Randal

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How to Read the Psalms for Authorized Applications

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If Michele says, “Randal, the dog needs to go out,” what she really means is…

After almost a two-year break from preaching through the Psalter, I am back in it. Here is a way for you to discover how the Psalms function for the church. What follows is a summary of illocutionary categories. The term, illocutionary, comes from the world of speech act theory. The categories come from the writings of Austin and Searle. As I result of my recent studies into speech act exegesis, I have added an inferential step (“with the intention of…”) to the categories to show how illocutionary acts do something to the reader.

Here are how the illocutionary categories function in the Psalms:

Assertives = the Psalmist asserts himself by stating something to be true or announcing the current state of affairs with the intention of eliciting faith in the biblical reality and the desire to enjoy or avoid the state depending on its character.

Directives = the Psalmist directs the hearer to do something through a command or instruction with the intention of urging either adherence or avoidance depending on the nature of the command.

Commissives = the Psalmist commits himself to some future action through making a promise or stating that he will do something with the intention of urging readers to follow.

Expressives = the Psalmist expresses himself in the sense of revealing feelings, such as thankfulness or gratitude, or thoughts with the intention of eliciting the same feelings in the reader.

Declarations = the Psalmist declares something and in the act of declaring, that something becomes reality such as a blessing with the intention of the reader experiencing the created condition.

In summary, assertives assert, directives direct, commissives commit, expressives express, and declarations declare.

When you work in the Psalms watch for the Psalmists doing these things.

In the case of Michele stating, “Randal, the dog needs to go out,” what she is doing is really asking me to take the dog out. That’s how illocutionary intent works.

As you allow these categories to work for you, your listeners will hear how the Psalms work and our Lord will receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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Practicing Theological Interpretation: Jesus’s disciples feed “about five thousand men…”

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“They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” Ya! Right!

Like you, maybe, I’ve come through an Advent series. I am currently in a mini-series on Covenant Church Membership to begin the new year. Lord willing, in a few weeks I’ll settle back into a “normal” series through Matthew’s Gospel or back to the Psalms.

In today’s post I want to continue to explore how Scripture functions for the church (theological interpretation). My example is from Matthew’s account of feeding the five thousand in 14:13-21.

You can tell from v. 16 that Jesus is going to teach His disciples when He replies to their idea with, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” Then they respond with, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.”

God is speaking to His people, to us and our congregants, through this impossible request.

I titled my message: The Earthly Life of “God with us”: Sharing His Compassion to Help Heal a Badly Broken World

The compassion part comes from v. 14 (“…and he had compassion on them…”). Evidently, His disciples didn’t catch that yet. Or, to be fair, we might say that they have compassion but can’t get beyond the impossible ministry assignment.

You might develop this in different ways, but the primary applicational angle stems from vv. 16-17.

What did the disciples learn from this miracle? Imagine what they thought when they reflected on what just happened, what they were able to do because of Jesus’s power.

That’s the point. And the narrative leads us there with the interaction between the disciples’s statement about the situation and Jesus’s viewpoint.

May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as you and I continue to read Scripture so it functions for the church.

Randal

P.S. What an exciting day for our country and a vivid reminder of how much we need to pray for our governing officials!

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The Monday Morning Expositor: Announcing A New Arrival!

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That’s not me in the picture, but pretend it’s you on a Monday morning when you are preparing to preach. What do you do for your first few hours?

I am happy to say that the e-book version of my latest book, The Monday Morning Expository: Rethinking Your Study Sequence For Sermon Development, is available.

The book is arguing a reversal of the normal study sequence. Usually, pastors begin to do their exegesis and amass all kinds of exegetical data from the passage. That results in notes filled with isolated fragments of meaning.

Through the years I’ve heard this comment from preaching pastors: “I get toward the end of the week, have lots of notes, but still don’t have the sermon yet.”

As I’ve thought about those comments and experienced it myself in my early years, it led me to the contexts of this book. I give more detail early in the book about how the new sequence came about in my own practice.

For now, if you would like to think about the first few hours of your study for sermon preparation, you might be interested in my book. It fleshes out the following acrostic (my students and blog readers might recall this):

A.B.I.T

Argument, Big Idea, Intention, and Theology.

If you practice this method on Monday morning, or whatever day your first few hours of study occur, you will end up with more of a big picture of the meaning and application of your preaching portion. You will have the gist of the sermon even though you don’t yet have all the exegetical details.

I know it sounds backwards, but that’s the point. Trust me when I say, you can gain great insight into preaching your passage with this process.

Anyway, I hope you’re enjoying preaching through Advent. May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) through our Spirit-driven efforts.

Randal

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Practicing Theological Interpretation for Your Upcoming Sermon

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I haven’t read this book, but love the title in light of this coming Sunday’s sermon, The Art of Relevance.

This little series of posts on theological interpretation of Scripture (TIS) is the result of the privilege of spending three days teaching a Ph.D. required course, OT Hermeneutics and Theology to a new group of friends. The subject is important because one of our goals is to interpret the OT so it functions for the church (my simply definition of TIS).

After surveying several definitions of TIS from leading scholars in the field, the common denominator was an interpretation that includes what we normally think of as application. When I saw the book title, The Art of Relevance, it made me think about art and science.

Unfortunately, we haven’t done a great job teaching a “scientific” method/approach for identifying the primary application of a biblical pericope. We’ve done pretty well with our exegetical method to arrive at some form of meaning. What I am after in these posts is meaning that includes authorized application.

My meaning formula for TIS is:

II-M (illocutionary Intent-Infused Meaning) = EC (exegetical content) + II (illocutionary intent)

Even if you’re not familiar with the speech act vocabulary, here’s the point:

when we identify the meaning of a passage for Sunday, we need to include what God intends to do to the church in our text.

The question is, how do we do that? That’s where some art comes into play (because we simply don’t yet have a solid method).

Let’s use Matthew 14:22-32 for our example this week. You remember this narrative: Jesus made the disciples get into the boat, a huge storm hits them in the night, Jesus walks on water to reach them, they are terrified, and He chastises them with, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” As soon as Jesus gets into the boat, the wind stops and they confess, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

The disciples begin as a “go and do otherwise” example, but finish in the “go and do likewise category. Help your people follow that same pathway in this text and our Lord will receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (cf. Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

P.S. As you complete your Sunday sermon, see if you can add the intentional element to your meaning. It should sound something like this: “This text is saying…with the intention of…” That combines content and intent that functions for the church.

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How Does Your Text for This Sunday Function for the Church?

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You and I Practice Theological Interpretation Every Week!

A couple of weeks ago I finished reading, A Manifesto for Theological Interpretation, edited by Bartholomew and Thomas. It’s important for our preaching because of the way in which they define TI (or TIS, theological interpretation of scripture):

“…we define broadly as interpretation of the Bible for the church…” (p. ix.)

The question is, what do they mean “for the church”?

I usually expand the definition a little bit by saying that TI/TIS is interpreting Scripture so it functions for the church.

But, then, what do I mean by “function”?

Think of the function of Scripture in terms of what God intends for Scripture to do to His readers. You might recognize that this meaning of TI closely resembles what we’ve always known as the application of Scripture. Christopher Wright wrote describes this as applying life to the Bible (I think he wrote this in his book, The Mission of God).

On page 17 they define TI as:

“…theological interpretation reads Scripture to hear God’s address, so that the church might be transformed into the image of Christ of the sake of the world.”

With those definitions in mind, our pressing question is, how does the text signal its intention?

I’ve been preaching through Matthew’s gospel since returning from my sabbatical so here’s an example from this morning’s study time. My preaching portion is Matthew 15:1-9. The religious leaders question Jesus about His disciples breaking “the tradition of the elders” (they don’t wash their hands!). Jesus replies by challenging them about their habit of breaking God’s commandments by the way they keep their traditions (they don’t care for their parents because they give the money to God).

In vv. 7-9 Jesus insults them (calling them “hypocrites”) and announces to them that Isaiah prophesied about them.

So, it’s fairly clear to me after my Monday morning study session that this text is designed to make sure all professing Christians do not follow the example of the religious leaders. They function as a “go and do otherwise” example.

If you have your text for this coming Sunday, can you identify early on how it functions for the church?

May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as we practice theological interpretation each week.

Randal

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From Cicero to Augustine to our Preaching

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Cicero influenced Augustine who, in turn, has influenced all of us!

The last few weeks I’ve been sharing key thoughts from Augustine’s, On Christian Doctrine (translated by Robertson). Because of my emphasis through the years of the intersection of homiletics and hermeneutics, I have read very little on ancient rhetoric. However, Augustine has given me a glimpse of it in this book and another that I began last week (Augustine and the Cure of Souls: Revising a Classical Ideal, by Paul R. Kolbet [not Stephen Colbert!].

You might be interested in the following quote from Augustine citing Cicero in the context of your own teaching and preaching work:

“Therefore a certain eloquent man said, and said truly, that he who is eloquent should speak in such a way that he teaches, delights, and moves. Then he added, ‘To teach is a necessity, to please is a sweetness, to persuade is a victory.'” (p. 136).

You and I are not interested in eloquence for eloquence’s sake.

However, we are interested in teaching. I had the privilege this morning again to teach the sacred Scriptures. It was my responsibility to interpret a section in Matthew’s Gospel in such a way that it functioned for my faith-family. We give biblical information and instruction.

We might not think about the second one, “delights.” Maybe because we’re not into entertaining. But what if I changed the angle with a quote from my mentor, Haddon Robinson: “It’s a sin to bore people with the Word of God.” So, if you struggle with the thought of delighting your listeners, you probably don’t struggle with trying to avoid boring your congregants with the Bible.

Finally, the third element, persuasion, is one that I expected to hear, even with my limited reading of ancient rhetoric. And this is one that you and I are extremely interested in. All our efforts to teach serve the goal of persuading our congregants to respond properly to sacred Scripture. Preachers talk about application or persuading listeners to apply their lives to the Bible.

N.B. You may recall from earlier posts that authorized persuasion is organically connected to theological exegesis. This requires skill to identify meaning of a passage that includes what God intends for that passage to do to listeners.

May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as we begin preparing for victory in our next preaching/teaching assignment.

Randal

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How Jonathan Edwards Helps Me With Applying Scripture

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Helping our Listeners Know What Influences Their Life Choices

Most mornings I continue to read Jonathan Edwards’s sermons as part of my devotional life. Along the journey through his preaching–currently in the Yale volume covering 1730-1733–I read for homiletical insights with the goal of being a more effective exegete/theologian/preacher.

Almost every sermon helps me learn how to apply Scripture. Edwards was meticulous in his application.

In his sermon, The Duty of Self-Examination, from Haggai 1:5 (“Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways.”), Edwards tells his listeners:

“We ought to consider which has the greatest influence upon us: our carnal appetites, or the promises and threatenings of God’s Word” (p. 486, vol. 10, Kimnach).

You’ll certainly want to explain “carnal appetites.” After you do, you have one half of an equation that affects our daily choices. The other half features two elements of sacred Scripture: promises and warnings.

Then, Edwards describes every moment of temptation:

“When there is set before us a self-denying, mortifying duty and a pleasant sin, for us to take our choice, the sinful pleasure and delight allures and entices on one side, and the favor of God and heaven invites on the other. Which do we choose, which has the greatest influence upon us…” (p. 486).

Your Scripture for this coming Sunday could have either direct or indirect reference to our “carnal appetites” or to “the promises and threatenings of God’s Word.” If so, then it’s a matter of identifying some specifics.

For instance, which element influences our thought life? What about the words we speak to each other?

And then, with typical Edward-like seriousness he states:

“Every man is in the way to heaven or the way to hell, and the way that we are now in, if pursued, will certainly bring us to one or the other of these” (p. 488).

And all that before the Application section of the sermon!

I hope that these excerpts from Edwards’s applicational angles helps you help your congregants put God’s Word into practice so that God continues to receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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How to Apply Part of Jesus’s High Priestly Prayer

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How to Locate the Worship Response to Jesus’s Prayer

Happy New Year to you!

Usually, at the start of each year I create a mini-series on some aspect of being a part of a local church. This year I am spending four Sundays on our four core values. Calvary Bible Church is:

  • biblically-shaped (we stand on God’s unchanging Word in an ever-changing world)
  • worshipful (we offer Him all that we are because of all that He is)
  • Disciple-making (we are new creations going to our neighbors and nations)
  • faith-family (we have been adopted by the Father, so we live and love like family)

But, that’s not important right now. What is is that this past Sunday we focused on being biblically-shaped from Jesus’s prayer in John 17:14-19: “Sanctify them in the truth…”

Preaching that text gave me an excellent opportunity to teach our congregants how God intends for them to worship Him through Jesus’s prayer. It is a unique aspect of theological interpretation. How is an ancient prayer of Jesus intended to function for the church?

The answer lies in God’s desire that His people would hear Jesus pray and then ask themselves,

“Am I experiencing a walk with God that Jesus prayed about?”

To use the brief excerpt above, Jesus asks His Father to sanctify His disciples in the truth. By implication our worship response is to make sure by the grace of God that we are being sanctified by the truth of God’s Word. This helps answer one of the most important theological questions about this prayer: does God automatically answer this prayer of Jesus or does it take a response from Jesus’s disciples?

Pretty simple.

You will run into this regularly. There are no imperatives in Jesus’s prayer: He says things to God and asks things of God, all intended for use in church. This approach is necessary for any attempts to worship with texts such as Pauline benedictions or prayers.

May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as you preach and teach such Scripture that describe experiences intended for all God’s people.

Randal

For all the care you put into artistry, visual polish frequently doesn’t matter if you are getting the story right.

Ed Catmull, former President of Pixar Animation and Disney Animation

Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces that Stand in the Way of True Inspiration (NYC: Random House, 2014), 37