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Maximizing Your Sermon Titles

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Check your last few sermon titles and see which of the following you created:

  • Market-driven title (like Fear Factor, which plays off the TV show)
  • Content-driven title (The Damaging Affects of Fear)
  • Application-driven title (How Christ Conquers Our Fears)

Most of us tend to gravitate toward one form of title. Over the last several years I’ve noticed an increase in the number of sermon titles designed to gain attention. You can maximize the impact of your title by creating them with an applicational element. Considering that the sermon title is often read before the sermon begins, an application-driven title can help you communicate before you begin preaching. Before the sermon begins, anyone who reads the title begins to process what your preaching portion is intended to do.

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Learning from the way Jesus uses illustrations in Luke 4:22-30

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Listener reaction to Jesus’ first recorded sermon in Luke 4:21 led to Him using two illustrations: the ministry of Elijah and Elisha. Jesus’ shed light on listener unbelief by giving two examples of people who reluctantly listened to the prophet’s message and received miracles. Jesus wasn’t only using the illustration to show that He would reach “outsiders.” His listeners became furious because of the racial message. They missed the main point of the illustration–the need to believe Jesus’ word in order to receive His salvation.

First, Jesus’ example helps me focus my illustrations on the main points, not minor points of a preaching portion. I’m guilty at times of shedding light on rather insignificant information. Sometimes that happens because I have a “killer” illustration that “has” to be in the sermon, regardless of where it is inserted. What is the main theological concern of my preaching portion? Do I need to shine light on that concept? If so, then the illustration helps me clarify a main idea.

Second, however, is what Jesus’ illustrations says about interpreting the OT. Jesus’ understanding and use of the OT stories help us realize that they often mean something “more” (not entirely different) when they are interpreted in the context of “the rest of the Story.” Read 1 Kings 17:24, for instance. What Elijah accomplished through the miracle, Jesus was trying to create without a miracle. The miracles would soon follow, though, in Luke 4:31ff.

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Preaching Jesus’ First Sermon in Luke 4:14-21

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One of the challenges of preaching in the Gospels is trying to apply to Christians what appears to be written/said to non-Christians. For instance, in Luke 4:18-19 Jesus reads from Isaiah 61:1-2. Isaiah’s message seems tailor made for an evangelistic sermon or as a call for social justice (i.e., the poor, captives, and oppressed are mentioned). Isaiah and Jesus certainly contain an evangelistic and social thrust. Primarily, however, Luke writes for the Church to bolster their faith (cf. Luke 1:4). If, as Jesus says in Luke 4:21, this Scripture from Isaiah was being fulfilled that day, Jesus’ short message is a time for us to challenge believers to be sure they are experiencing the reversal of fortune described initially by Isaiah. All who profess faith in Christ move from poverty to spiritual wealth/power, from captivity to spiritual freedom/power, from blindness to spiritual perspective/vision, and from oppression to spiritual courage and hope.  According to Luke 4:22-30, the church-going folks in Jesus’ hometown did not believe Him. They did not believe they were needy. Believers, by definition, need to believe that Jesus does what He says He’ll do and receive His gracious gift of salvation/sanctification.

I’m not saying evangelism or social justice have no place. It’s just that Luke intends to say something to the Church about their response to Jesus’ person and work.

For those who are interested in preaching Christ from such a seemingly-already-Christ-centered text, remember, Jesus would later face rejection greater than that recorded in Luke 4:28-29. On the cross He would experience the deepest and darkest forms of human distress described in Luke 4:18. And He would do so so that those of us who believe His Word would never have to experience them.

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How Not to Moralize John’s Moralistic-sounding Gospel

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One hurdle in preaching the Gospels is the presence of moralistic-sounding messages. Luke 3:10-14 contains John’s message. In response to John’s warning about the need for bearing fruit “in keeping with repentance,” his listeners ask, “What then shall we do?” John answers with three specific things to do. That’s it. No talk of faith in Christ. I suggest that in order to preach Luke 3:1-14, we need to make a clear statement about John’s moralistic-sounding Gospel making sense with the following section on Jesus’ soon-coming baptism with the Holy Spirit (cf. Luke 3:15-17). John preaches his moralistic-sounding message knowing that faith in Christ will create the desire and capacity to do those three distinctly Christian acts and more.

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The Pull To Moralize Even Gospel Narratives

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In Luke 2:39-52 we read the story of the time the pre-teen Jesus got in trouble with His parents. Luke 2:46 says, “After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.” Where will you focus application, on Jesus’ perfection or our need to copy Him (i.e., display the same love for God and His Word)? The Gospels present a huge temptation for us to moralize the life of Jesus. This narrative is also bracketed by Luke 2:40 and Luke 2:52 which record Jesus’ overall growth pattern. Again, it’s so tempting to simply say, “Go and do likewise.” I follow Tim Keller’s approach and suggest that it’s not either/or, but both/and. Bolster faith first by highlighting the perfections of Christ. Then urge obedience by calling everyone to follow His example. If you’re interested in reading more on this topic, see my article, Cross-Eyed Application in the May 2007 issue of Preaching journal.

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“If you’re asked…

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“If you’re asked to preach, don’t sing. If you’re asked to sing, don’t preach.”

I heard Dr. Howard Hendricks say this in class during my years at Dallas Theological Seminary in the mid-80’s. Prof just recently went home into the presence of God.

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Theology from Luke’s Early Prophecies

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I have just begun a series preaching through Luke’s gospel. Immediately I ran into the difficult preaching portions where an angel of the Lord prophesies about John the Baptizer’s role (Luke 1:13-17). Then, in Luke 1:67-79 Luke records Zechariah’s own prophecy about Jesus and John’s missions. I found it helpful to focus on the fact that these prophecies are God’s interpretation of Jesus and John’s missions. Key elements of our salvation are contained in these prophecies. God’s definition of their mission contains information that helps us understand later portions of Luke’s research about Jesus. For instance, these opening prophecies highlight the often-neglected aspect of repentance (cf. Luke 1:17), being redeemed to serve God (Luke 1:74), and justification leading to the goal of our holiness (Luke 1:75).

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Sincerely, (Your Name)

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I was recently listening to an old broadcast of the radio show, This American Life. During the broadcast, Joe Franklin, the host of the longest running talk show in television history was quoted saying,

“The main ingredient to longevity is sincerity. Once you’ve learned to fake that, you’ve got it made.”

Last evening I spent a delightful ninety minutes with the lead worshiper (a.k.a. worship leader) at our church. We talked together about how to create singing and teaching times that best facilitate worship. The first thing we talked about was our own sincerity.

When I listened to the Franklin quote, it helped me think again of the importance of responding to our own sermons in the study, long before we ask others to respond in the service. I pray that you sincerely love God, love His people, and love to teach His Word.

Sincerely,
Randal Pelton

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Do You Sound Like A Contemporary Preacher?

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I am enjoying reading Barth’s, Homiletics. In the preface, Bromiley previews Barth’s “belief that closeness to life, important though it is in the sermon, must not be at the cost of closeness to the text” (p. 14). That got me thinking about whether or not we preachers sound like our world with respect to our voice and delivery. Closeness to life is another way to speak of relevance; closeness to the text, of course, speaks of preaching with accuracy.

Lately, I have wondered if all TV news anchors and field reporters take a course in how to speak or how to sound while they’re reporting the news. Listen to them and you’ll discover that they all sound the same. At the risk of overgeneralizing, I’m suggesting that there are two dominant preaching styles, the traditional preacher and the conversational preacher. The conversational preacher includes the real relevant, seeker-sensitive approach.

What do you sound like when you preach? Would our listeners say that we sound like a preacher (with respect to how we say what we say)? When we report on what God has said, do we sound like all the other contemporary, seeker-sensitive preachers who evidently took the same class on how to speak or how to sound? We must be constantly aware of the tension between closeness to life (relevance, or, in this case, sounding relevant) and closeness to the text (accurate reporting). I loved Barth’s advice: “For in preaching it is always better to be too close to the text than to be too thematic or too much in keeping with the times” (p. 117).

Sometimes I wished just one TV news reporter would break from that mold, be real, and talk to me about what happened.