Diversifying Your Approach – Word Study Sermons

This post is part of a series where I discuss various sermon approaches.
I hope within these posts you may discover some new methods you can use to structure and deliver a message.
PART 1 – Diversifying Your Preaching Approach
PART 2 – Story as Sermon (Narrative Preaching)
PART 3 – From Specific to General – Inductive Preaching
PART 4 – A Way to Train Your People – Expository Preaching
PART 5 – Preaching to People’s Needs – Topical Preaching

In his work The Four Loves, author C. S. Lewis dedicates time and attention to the meaning of four greek words. These words, all found in the original language of Scripture, have meanings that are quite different from one another, even though each is translated into English, as the word, “love.” The purpose and intention of Lewis’s work, then, is to differentiate the meaning and application of those four “love words” for his readers.

Think of it like this…

I love my wife. I love my dogs. I love my mom and dad. I also love the caramel ribbon crunch frappuccino that I am currently sipping while I write this. To say I love any and all of those things is accurate. But it does not take a linguistic scholar to see that, though the word “love” is used in each context, my meaning for each statement is quite different.

This is the concept that Lewis unpacks in his work. This is also the sort of approach we will take as we discuss the idea of a word study sermon.

Before we go very far, I want to make one disclaimer.

Do not be intimidated if you have little or no knowledge of the Greek or Hebrew languages.

Thanks to modern tools, it is possible to use a scavenger hunt style approach that allows you to do your own word study. While this is not some sort of substitute for academic studies, it is a way to enrich your understanding of the words used in Biblical languages.

HOW TO APPROACH A WORD STUDY SERMON

While they are not pure opposites, I like to approach a word study sermon inverse of how I approach a topical sermon. Here is what I mean.

In a topical sermon, you begin with a contemporary idea.In a word study sermon, you begin with a Biblical idea.In a topical sermon, you look across the breadth of Scripture to find uses of the same English word or concept.In a word study sermon, you look across the breadth of Scripture for uses of the same original (i.e.Greek or Hebrew) wordIn a topical sermon, you present Biblical applications to modern topics.In a word study sermon, you present modern applications to Biblical topics.

None of the above should be seen as some sort of hard-and-fast rule to clarify what is or is not a word-study sermon.  As with other types of preaching, you will find overlap among various preaching approaches. Ultimately this is another means to preach God’s message to God’s people.

HOW TO BEGIN

Like the topical approach, a word study sermon is best used in specific situations. Therefore, please do not just pick any word and decide to build a sermon around it. The result would likely be immensely exhausting for both you and your congregation. Instead, like Lewis looked at the four Greek words for love, you want to select a significant word and expand upon its meaning and application. Here are some possibilities:

Greek: doulos (δοῦλος) – English translation: slaveGreek: hilasmos (ἱλασμός) – English translation: propitiationGreek: lootron (lytron) – English translation: redeem

While there are many more possibilities than just these three, any of these could serve as a rich source of material to deepen the lives of the congregation. Once you have selected your word, it’s time to let the word study scavenger hunt begin.

THE SCAVENGER HUNT

In a typical scavenger hunt, you will need tools like a map, a compass, or perhaps even a list of clues.

For this activity, we will also need some tools, but never fear! You can find a plethora of tools that are freely available on the internet. The tool we will be using for this exercise is called a concordance. A concordance, in case you are unaware, is a book that lists off every usage of every word in the Bible. Since different translations will have different totals, concordances are usually connected with specific translations such as KJV, ESV, or NIV.

Want to know how many times the word “the” shows up in the King James Version? A quick concordance search will provide you with the answer of 64,016. Furthermore, another section of a concordance will show every Greek or Hebrew word that ends up being translated as “the.”

But I’m getting ahead of myself. More on that later.

If you own a concordance, feel free to grab it off your shelf and follow along. Otherwise, venture over to BlueLetterBible.org (BLB) for access to some great, free tools.

Our scavenger hunt will proceed like this:

Start with your selected English word from a selected text.Identify the original Greek or Hebrew word.Discover other ways the original word is translated.Evaluate how the different translations deepen your understanding.

Step 1: Start with your selected English word from a selected text.

If you have done word studies previously, you likely are aware of some specific original words that you would like to build a sermon around. But otherwise, how do you start? Out of all the words in the Bible, how do you select one to unearth in a sermon? Here are three suggestions:

A word that stands out to you. If a topic means something to you, it is more likely to mean something to your audience.A word that catches your attention during a study. Have you ever been studying for a message, or in your devotional time, only to have a word or topic catch your attention? This may be a great word to unpack.A word that is common, but rarely understood. What exactly does it mean to be “redeemed?” We may sing and talk about such a concept in church, but how would the original recipients have understood it? Why is it an important concept for us to grasp today?

Once you have a word pinned down, I strongly recommend beginning from a single passage and branching out from there.

Imagine you decide to perform a word study on the English word “redeem”. Upon looking up “redeem” in your concordance, you find out there are around 40 different uses of the word in your English translation. These 40 instances include multiple different original words (i.e. Greek or Hebrew words) that end up translated as redeem in English.

I hope you can see how this might lead to an exercise that would make you want to leave this approach to only those with doctorate degrees.

But stick with me. You CAN do this.

Begin by selecting a single passage where your word is used. This will not only be your starting point, this will be the focal point of your message.

For our purposes, we’re going to look at the use of the word redeem as found in Titus 2:14.

Step 2: Identify the original Greek or Hebrew word.

Look up your selected word in your concordance. This is the part of the concordance that I find to be SUPER cool.

Every Greek or Hebrew word is numbered!

Yes…I’m a geek and get excited about quirky things like this.

As you look at all the English uses of your selected word, you will find every passage reference and a corresponding number. Write this number down as it will help us to the next location in our word study scavenger hunt. If your passage is in the Old Testament, the associated word comes from Hebrew. If your passage is in the New Testament, your associated word comes from Greek.

This is where our concordance helps us even further. A concordance lists not only every usage of every English word but all the Greek and Hebrew ones as well. If you are using a concordance in physical book form, flip towards the back where you will find the sections on Greek and Hebrew. If you are using an electronic version, you can probably just click on the number.

Step 3: Discover other ways the original word is translated.

Thus far we have followed the trail to the land of ancient languages. If you have used the number from earlier and looked in the appropriate section, you will now find every usage of that Greek or Hebrew word.

EXAMPLE:

I did a search for the word redeem in the New International Version on BlueLetterBible.org.Scrolling down to Titus 2:14, I clicked on “TOOLS.”I then found the word redeem from the list, and saw it was identified as g3084.

Based on my brief scavenger hunt, I now have a pronunciation, an outline of how the word is translated, and every place the Greek word shows up in the New Testament.

Step 4: Evaluate how the different translations deepen your understanding.

So what do I learn about the idea of redemption from these various usages? Here are a few quick observations.

Redemption has to do with a purchase. Payment of some type of ransom is required.The result is freedom. This is not like the purchase of one slave from one owner to another. This is a purchase that sets the redeemed one free.Ransom is explicitly used multiple times. Thus, this is not bail or bond, but payment to be released from the captivity of a hostile opponent.1 Peter 1:18 is a good support verse to help reiterate these ideas.

I would be remiss to point out that you can trace various usages of the same root word, often finding them numbered consecutively with the original. However, in the same way, that “redeem” and “redemption” may be listed separately, original language words may appear separately also.

Whew…that is a lot of explanation. But based on this information I hope you can see how you can begin to craft a message around what is meant by Paul in his letter to Titus when he says that Christ gave himself to redeem us from all wickedness.

But I want to hear from you. Have you ever done a word study sermon? What approaches have you used? What tips have you found most helpful?